50 before and after photos show how much Austin has changed in the last 20 years

Few American cities are as sensitive about change as Austin, and yet at the same time, so vulnerable to it. During the past 20 years, some neighborhoods have been swallowed whole.

Where once a few towers announced the city's central core, now scores of skyscrapers compete for supremacy . Longtime residents and infrequent visitors can be forgiven for momentary lapses of dislocation: "Where am I? This was a place I once knew like my own backyard." Despite these upheavals, some sights remain essentially unchanged.

In a series of before-and-after images, award-winning American-Statesman photographer Jay Janner has documented the most dramatic developments, but also the lingering memories of Austin's physical past.

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No mere words can encompass the profound shifts, for instance, in formerly diminutive districts such as West Campus or Rainey Street, now riots of high-rises. Raw pastures that once seemed barely disturbed by human handiwork now host Tesla's "gigafactory," soccer's Q2 Stadium, and the giant race-car loop of the Circuit of the Americas.

It takes incisive visual reporting to make this point clear: If Austin has retained some of its essential human culture, its physical environment has, in places, changed beyond any ready recognition.

— Michael Barnes

Drag the sliders below to see the captivating before and after photos of Austin:

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 50 before and after photos show how much Austin has changed in the last 20 years