All of the photographs on the site come from the City Photographer collection hosted and curated by the University of Pittsburgh's Archives Services Center
Retrographer uses Google Maps to make it easy for anybody to geotag these images. This geotag data is sent back to the Archives Services Center to become a permanent part of the archive.
Retrographer was started in the Fall of 2010 as a project for the Senior studio Pieces taught by Dylan Vitone at Carnegie Mellon University. The project has evolved and lives on after the class has ended. So far over 3,900 photos have been tagged by people all over Pittsburgh
Retrographer continues to evolve. Check back soon on your smartphone, a mobile app is on the way.
If you have any feedback about Retrographer please email me at dpieri@gmail.com -Dane Pieri
It doesn't have to be. If you would like to bring Retrographer to your city, and are able to work with an archive or museum to get access to a collection like Pittsburgh's City Photographer Collection, shoot me an email!
"The Endness Street steps are visible if you look directly above the man standing near Saw Mill Run. These were wood then, but were replaced by concrete steps in the late '40s. They are (mostly) still there in 2023."
"Southside"
"Just went down these steps today. (They're closed but I was able to make it all the way thanks to a board someone put in.) They are concrete now and are in rough condition. The "now" photo is what you see across Kilbourne St. when you get to the bottom."
"These are the Diana Street steps."
"These steps are called St. Michael Street, presumably named after St. Michael's Church at the bottom."
"Up Front"
"omg it does say that.
Please ignore me. "
"I believe this photo should say "looking North." From the vantage of this photo, if we were facing West, there would be no bridge in the background. "