Landscape Architecture Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Landscape Architecture Theses and Dissertations by Author "Melnick, Robert"

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    Cultural Landscape Documentation and Repeat Photography: Linking Framework and Practice
    (University of Oregon, 2023-03-24) Kerr, Noah; Melnick, Robert
    Cultural landscape professionals commonly use an established, framework-based approach to assess distinctive site features. This framework serves to organize and inform the study, reconnaissance, and documentation of tangible features during fieldwork, in which the recording and compilation of photographic records plays a principal role. Successive photo-documentation surveys may build on existing records over time, yet do not necessarily align with the specific location or orientation of established viewsheds in a consistent way. Historical photographs, key primary sources in site research, are often used without benefit of robust spatial analysis. Therein lies an opportunity for practical innovation in applied photo-documentation methods, examined in the context of cultural landscape preservation.This study proposes and tests a functional interface for the cultural landscape framework with rephotographic techniques, through which practitioners may systematically analyze and reoccupy the camera station (vantage point) of a historical source photograph. Literature survey and previous experimentation informs the development of a method for extending the usefulness of cultural landscape characteristics through photographic source analysis. This method was implemented in a criteria-based selection of early 20th century photographs of the Elbridge W. Merrill Collection, preserved at Sitka National Historical Park, resulting in the rephotography of associated viewsheds located on Baranof Island, Alaska. This work presents theoretical context, source selection and analysis design, and case study examples, and it also considers selected instances of rephotographic work present in recent cultural landscape practice. The study concludes with field-based conceptual and practice guidance for current and future practitioners. Overall, this work voices a case for continued innovation in photographic approaches to cultural landscape documentation as those practices contend with change over time.