PVCC Puma Press: March 2003

In 1979, Allen Dutton, who has since retired as chairman of the Photography Department at Phoenix College, embarked on a rephotographing project. He would locate historical pictures of Arizona and rephotograph those sites.

His photographs showed in detail the difference between Arizona then and now. Dutton gathered the images together and published a book entitled Arizona Then and Now in 1980 through Westcliffe Publishers.

Twenty-one years later, in 2001, he has been asked to renew the book.

"Westcliffe called to see if I would do the whole state again," he says.

Dutton agreed and was given a year to accomplish the revised book. Because he had an abundance of pictures he had taken previously, he completed the project in 13 months, working every day.

On his travels he took his 1930s camera. Dutton wanted to achieve the same quality early photographers had accomplished in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

"I invested in a second-hand, 8-by-10-inch Kodak commercial view camera, manufactured in the 1930s, and a Gortz Golden Dagor 300 mm lens, bearing a formula arrived at a century ago," he explains in his book.

The early photographers were able to take more enhanced pictures than modernized cameras, which lose distinction. "Enlarging photographs changes quality of the print and dilutes it in some way," he says. "The cameras of the past gave pictures a sterling quality.

"If you really love photography, you'll be able to understand the difference between an enlargement and a contact print. You have to have a discerning eye; you don't cast pearls before swine."

In the process of preparing his book, Dutton researched information from various historical societies including Sharlot Hall Society, Arizona Historical Foundation Society, Nogales Historical Society, ASU campus and a number of other historical societies from smaller towns.

In his coffee table book he displays 156-pages of elegant scenery surrounding Arizona's vast deserts. Hundreds of pictures capture scenes from north to south and east to west; from as early as the 19th century to just two years ago.

Photos on each page compare and contrast the differences between the old and the new. The pictures demonstrate how agriculture and technology have renovated Arizona.

Since the book's release date of October 2002, it has successfully sold over 9,000 copies. "It's going through its third printing," Dutton says.

Dutton has written six books and has his photographs appearing in over 30 books and magazines. He also has his collections of photography in over a dozen museums across the world, including the famous Corcoran Museum in Washington, D.C.

"Vintage photographs fascinate me," he says in his book, and he concludes, "A life dealing with art has been one of the most satisfying lives anyone can imagine."