Canadian photographer matches famous movie scenes with the real-life locations where they were filmed

There’s something magical about visiting the spot where your favourite movie scene was filmed. It gives you a direct connection to a film and its characters and somehow makes the movie seem more real.

That’s part of the idea behind FILMography, on ongoing art project by Canadian photographer and movie fan Christopher Moloney. The Brampton, Ont., native recreates famous film scenes by matching stills with the real-life locations where they were shot.

“I find the locations one of two ways,” Moloney told Yahoo Movies Canada when asked how he picks his photo subjects. “Either I'm watching a movie and recognize the location or I'll walk past a location and realize, ‘That was in a movie!’ Then I print off a screen grab of the scene and visit the spot.”

The photographer has shot everything from "Annie Hall" to "The Avengers" and shows no signs of slowing down. Since starting the project in 2012, the Moloney has recreated nearly 600 movie, television, and video game scenes altogether, in places like New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, Rome, and even Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City. He next plans to shoot photos in Atlanta, Georgia (where he recently moved) and the United Kingdom.

Moloney’s has a great eye, steady hands, and a real knack for finding obscure shooting locations, but the photographer says that recreating scenes for the project isn’t always as simple as just visiting the place where a movie was filmed.

“There have been a lot of times the location had changed too much for me to recreate it,” he said. “Oddly enough, newer movies are the problem. Classic movies shot in famous locales (Central Park, New York Public Library, Wall Street, etc.), whereas modern films shoot in bookstores and restaurants, which often go out of business before the movie is even released.”

The FILMography series has rightfully earned Moloney a huge following on social media and a place in galleries and exhibitions around the world. He attributes people's love of the movies for the popularity of the project.

“It really is our shared history,” he said. “I think most people like to be able to feel like they're part of that history by visiting the spot where the great (and not-so-great) moments occurred. Also, because of all the CGI used these days, I think a lot of people get a excited when it turns out the movie was shot in a ‘real’ place.”

You can see more of Moloney's work on his FILMography Tumblr blog here.