When The Present Meets The Past: Ben Morales creates with history

Toledo Local Features  |  04/29/2013 8:00 am

On a cold, volatile afternoon last week, Ben Morales stood in front of the Gardner Building, attempting to align a 100-year-old photo of the six-story office with its present state. There, on the corner of Madison and Superior, he held the image up, trying to perfectly match the edges of the photo with the dimensions of the building. With his extended left arm positioning the photo into place and his right arm stabilizing his iPhone held by a tripod, he intended to combine the present with the past, but the wind wasn't cooperating.

"I don't know if I'll be able to get it today, but I'll run through the process anyway," he said as a sporadic gust almost knocked over his set-up.

But Morales has been scanning historic images and snapping photos of them in front of their respective locations for a year and a half in downtown Toledo, so he's used to working in inclement weather. Five minutes later, he almost had it.

"It's lining up pretty good, but it's not perfect — it might be a step or two off," he said.

Moving a couple of paces to the left, Morales used a pole to steady himself and, after a few quick clicks of his phone, he was finished.

"I think I got it," he said. "But, we'll see how it turns out."

Rolling with it

After seeing the concept floating around the Internet a few years back, Morales, who is a graphic designer at Communica, pitched the idea of layering historic photos with the same contemporary shot to a client as part of a branding strategy. Even though the client shot it down, he kept the idea in the back of his mind and eventually just rolled with it for his own creative outlet.

Each photo shoot takes Morales about 20 minutes (See full images below)

"I've always been fascinated with old, historical photos," says Morales, who graduated from BGSU in 2006 with a degree in Fine Arts.  "They just have so much character; there's something hauntingly beautiful about looking at a 100-year-old photo."

His first attempt was the Key Bank Building. It was a success, and, after a few more trial runs went smoothly, an idea became a passion: "They came out pretty well and I thought it would be a cool thing to keep doing as a long-term project."

Source material

Most of the old images come from the Toledo Public Library's archives or the Library of Congress's website. Sometimes it takes hours to find the right one, other times it's more of an organic process.

"Sometimes I'll just randomly look on the historical archives, just to see what pops out to me and I'll find a beautiful, distinct shot and think, 'I know where that is.' And other times I'll be walking on the streets and I'll see a beautiful building that I didn't quite notice before and I'll look specifically for that photo," he says.

Once he picks an image, Morales then scans, crops and recomposes it, so he can frame it perfectly within the photograph, showing the viewer the stark differences and the unmistakable similarities.

"The cool thing about this project is that you can really compare and contrast specific elements — what's changed in 100 years," he says. "A lot of the photos I tried to set up didn't work because there was too much change. Judging from the historical photos, that was Toledo in its prime. It was pristine, there was a lot of hustle and bustle on the streets; Toledo was an up-and-coming town. Since then, it's had its ups and downs; they haven't  been able to maintain a lot of the buildings. A lot of the buildings are in disrepair. It's made me appreciate what we had and what we can have again."

Seeing is believing

Besides history buffs and architecture junkies, most of us don't know what the buildings we pass everyday — and possibly take for granted — looked like 70, 80, 90 years ago. And most of us don't want to hear a lecture or research it ourselves, either, but the instant gratification of viewing a project like this is quick to spark your interest. 

Morales posts every photo on his Instagram page (See full images below)

"You can explain to someone how much it has changed, but to show them a photograph, it's instantaneous," Morales said. "There is a lot of value to that."

The work is readily available for viewing, as well, since the entire project can be found on his Instagram (www.instagram.com/benmorales) social networking tool in which Morales thinks is a great format to share this project.

"Instagram is great for spreading the word and getting exposure," he says.  "A concept like this is really unique for Instagram: a lot of the images [on Instagram] are just mundane crap, but I take pride in an artistic approach to all my photos. It's really cool to see what my followers think."

In the moment

A half hour before Morales took photos of the Gardner Building, we sat in the Bleak House, sipping coffee and discussing the project. He had the 30 or so photos of the buildings that he has shot so far spread out on the table. The only customers were us and a young couple. Eventually the man approached Ben: "Can I interrupt you guys for a second?"

He introduced himself as John Deprisco, an Ohio native and photographer that lives in Kansas City. He was in town for a family funeral and, after complimenting Morales on his project, John asked if he had ever photographed the Deprisco Music Store, which no longer exists, but was in his family for several decades. Morales had not, but they exchanged information anyway.

"If you do ever shoot it, I'll buy it off you," Deprisco said before leaving.

Later I asked him if he has any plans for the photos beyond Instagram, but he said he rather just keep a full head of steam with the project — and attempt to post one per week  — than think that far ahead.

"I'm open to whatever happens with it," Morales says. "A lot of people have expressed interest; a lot of people want to buy them. I don't know what's going to happen. I almost don't want to think about that because I'm so immersed in the process of creating them. It's just an obsession."