BUTTE - A local photographer has created this large window art by combining a modern-day color photograph with this old-timey black-and-white photograph from 1932. It was important for the artist to have this up in time for the Montana Folk Festival.
WATCH: Butte photographer combines past and present in large window art for Montana Folk Festival
“Everyone will be Uptown, even those who live here; it’s just a great time to just kind of showcase Butte, really, in a big way,” Photographer Lisa Edwards said.
Calling it “time-travel photography,” Edwards found a photo taken 94 years ago looking west on Park Street. She then takes a new photo of the same street, carefully lining it up with the old photo and superimposing the two shots.
“To be able to see what was there and what’s here now and just the difference, time, is fascinating, and the people that were here before, what things used to be like,” Edwards said.
A crew from Park Street Printers put the six-foot-by-13-foot photo on the front windows of the Miner’s Hotel. The hotel’s owner said the festival is important to the local hospitality industry.
“And a lot of our guests they enjoy the Folk Festival so much, that they’re trying to book as they're checking out for next year,” Hotel owner Chuckie Richards said.
Some people here for the music festival say they love Butte's historic look.
“I love learning about the buildings and the architecture, you know, looking at these things that are built in 1892,” Shana Yellowcalf of Gig Harbor, Wash., said.
The festival begins July 10 and runs through the 12th.
