Last Saturday was set aside for a trip to the Legion of Honor's  exhibit entitled After the Ruins, 1906 and 2006: Rephotographing the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. It was a beautiful day. The sky and the bay were so clear, and the grounds of the museum were stunning. The Legion of Honor has got to be, hands down, one of my favorite museums in the city. I always start in the café with a bite to eat and Champagne.

The exhibit is in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the SF earthquake. It consists of 46 lucent photographs and four panoramas that pair vintage images of the aftermath of the 1906 quake, photographed by Arnold Genthe , with modern renderings of the same sites by contemporary photographer Mark Klett.

The detail involved in these photographic pairings is amazing, and the setup that went into them painstakingly researched. Klett was able to rephotograph the original sites, determine the time of day the original photos were shot, and highlight whatever structures remain on the sites.

What really brings the photographs together is the multimedia piece that goes with the exhibit. The piece contains an interactive map of the locations of the original photos, a section where Mark Klett discusses the complexities of rephotography and an interactive area that overlays the original image with the modern one. It’s wonderful how the user can experience the shift in time through the use of a slider. Unfortunately the piece isn’t for sale. I asked. It’d make a great souvenir to take home from the exhibit or a nice companion to the book. There are no immediate plans to reproduce it either.

I highly recommend that you go and see the show. There are only two stations and the show is busy, so there might be a line. But it’s worth the wait.