Calling Cape Town ‘togs etc

Here’s an interesting idea for you. And by “interesting”, I actually mean “as interesting as history gets, which isn’t quite as interesting as, say, something really fascinating, but quite easily beats accountancy”.

A bloke in London called Gary McLeod has started a project which aims to… well – he can tell you:

This project aims to revisit the voyage of HMS Challenger between 1872 and 1876. HMS Challenger was a Royal Naval vessel but was borrowed by the Royal Society to research the depths of the oceans and study the marine wildlife that they dredged along the way. It was a very significant voyage. However, for me, more important are the 500 photographs that they took throughout the journey.
These photographs were taken by 3 photographers throughout the journey and documented the depth and breadth of the world and the variety of countries and cultures encountered. The collection is a held at the Natural History Museum in London but few people see these images anymore.

After encountering these pictures online while I was living in Japan, I sought to identify the locations in the Japan photographs from the voyage and I re-photographed them as they are today.

This activity prompted a series of artworks. I then got an idea.
What about the rest of the pictures taken around the world? Could they all be re-visited?

I didn’t have a ship, nor the money to buy one. So I wondered if the Internet could help? At the same time, I wondered if anybody could do what I did?
I therefore borrowed a social networking site and customized it, naming it SNS Challenger in honour of the original ship. After filling it with all the original pictures, I started trying to promote the voyage to people around the world to increasing success.

And so on and so forth.

HMS Challenger put in a good few miles in her time, visiting Portugal, the Bahamas, South America, Tahiti, Japan, Australia and New Zealand amongst other far-flung places, but locals will be most interested in the photos from the Cape of Good Hope.
And if you can identify where any of these old photographs were taken (some are easier than others), then sign up, recreate the original photograph and post it on the site with your story.

What are you waiting for?

2 thoughts on “Calling Cape Town ‘togs etc

  1. A noble cause. Unfortunately there are no photos of Melbourne. However, I will promote to some fellow photographers in Sydney and see what happens!

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