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He's on a mission to photograph historic Franklin. The camera he's using is historic itself

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FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — If you're walking around downtown Franklin and see someone with a historic camera, he's more than happy to talk to you about what he's doing.

His name is Blake Wylie. It's not every day you see someone carrying a camera from the early 20th century. He's not shooting a movie. Rather, he's bringing us a little bit back in time.

"Yeah just going out and seeing all the historic properties and the buildings and the stories with them, so I was like you know this is what I do," Wylie said.

Wylie is photographing historic buildings — how they look through a different lens.

"It's every building at least in the downtown area that was built before the Civil War started," Wylie said.

This will take Wylie a long time. Saturday was the second photo of the project. He photographed a group of church members outside of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which was built in the 1800s.

"I mean this is really about just keeping the past alive," he said. "Keeping the old ways alive."

"With those old photos of these properties and these buildings from the original time period and compare it with the same process through that historic lens and that historic view of today," he added.

Today, we're so used to seeing how a photo comes out in a matter of seconds. This is still a relatively quick process. It's history in a matter of minutes.

"This is a revival of the old style," Wylie said.

Click here to see more of Wylie's work.

Do you have a positive story happening in the area you'd like to share? You can email me at Austin.Pollack@newschannel5.com

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