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Time Travel Across America Through Local Photographer's "Past Present Project"

By David Spunt

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There's no such thing as time travel, but if you sit down with Montgomery County native Christian Carollo, you'll get pretty darn close.

Photography runs deep in Carollo's family. His grandparents traveled across America, and left detailed proof from trips in the 1970, 80s and 90s. A few years ago, Carollo decided to travel to the exact same spots, and match photographs.

"To go to those exact same places where they were and kind of think about what they experienced when they were there, yeah it's kind of crazy," Carollo said with a smile.

He's taken hundreds of photographs that match perfectly. How did he do it? He credits his grandmother's handwritten journal from the 1970s. She left detailed accounts of each trip.

After his grandfather died in 2008, Carollo started The Past Present Project.  His mission is simple. He wants spread his love for history, and maybe one day someone will take pictures and match them up to what life was like in 2015. Until then, Christian Carollo has his work cut out for him.

"I have at least two hundred more that I can do in the U.S. and then I have another 30 boxes of slides from around Europe," he said.

For more on Carollo's project, visit his website: http://pastpresentproject.com/.

 

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