Readers of earlier reviews in the Maine Sunday Telegram may recall my comments of Nov. 8, 2009, on John Moon’s quite respectable Arcadia Press book, “Portland: Then & Now.”

One is tempted to say that the author-photographer’s new volume is simply a new incarnation of the former, beautifully reformatted with half color and half black-and-white photographs. In a way that is true, but it really does not do proper justice to Moon’s effective and refreshing approach.

“City by the Sea” gives Moon, a financial analyst, writer and graduate of the University of Maine and Rensselaer Polytechnic University, a chance to display his own color photographs of the city where he grew up. This was not so in the earlier title, where his work was black and white or sepia tinted by the publisher.

Moon is no fancy, artsy photographer showing off “The Forest City” like a tarted-up child at a beauty pageant. What you get is what the eye sees. A perfect example on page 32 is a black-and-white photo of High Street from Cumberland Avenue around 1900. The historic image depicts a courtly line of mansard houses leading toward Congress Square and the historic Libby Building. There are hitching posts and the first telephone poles.

Facing on page 33 is Moon’s clear, unpretentious color image of the rather jumbled red-brick Gateway Garage, the towering Eastland Hotel and the I.M. Pei wing of the Portland Museum of Art (where the Libby Building stood). This scene is backed by a blue sky and puffy white clouds — something I see every day, weather permitting.

If a researcher 150 years hence would question the authenticity of the look and feel of the place, I would attest to it. No glamour shot, this.

For the reader-viewer who wants the “Portland Beautiful” book, there are plenty of other choices. For those who want the city in its natural beauty, as I would in spite of “modern” changes, go here.

For the best large-format documentation I have seen so far, Moon’s new book works best. The exception would be specialized books, including Greater Portland Landmarks’ “Bold Vision: The Development of Parks in Portland, Maine” (1999).

The latter, though, was a professionally designed, text-bearing masterpiece. “City by the Sea’s” genius is short introductory text, brief captions tying past to present and, for the most part, putting the vintage shot on the left and the contemporary color shot on the opposite page.

Thus, one gets a commanding view of Valley Street, Union Station and Libbytown. In today’s view, the grand railway station is replaced by the utilitarian shopping center, though the Maine Central office building and portions of the residential landscape survive.

A new photograph of the Portland Company buildings at the east end of town shows 21st-century graffiti, happily not airbrushed out. The passing parade is neatly depicted in a 1930s photo of the Portland Automobile Sales Company below Munjoy Hill. Converted from the former trolley garage, it stood beautiful and proud, a temple to the internal combustion engine. In 2010, its bricked-over remnant serves a heating supply business.

Moon has really found himself with this formula, and with his documentary color photos juxtaposed across from the extremely well-chosen vintage photographic illustrations. Many of these come from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Maine Historical Society and other rich holdings throughout the state.

Moon has given us, and those in the future, an incalculable gift, a clear pictorial record of the way it was.

If there is a criticism, it concerns his historic research, which is good but might have been perfect had it been vetted through local architectural historians.

As it is, “City by the Sea” is a necessary joyful volume for all city bookshelves. 

William David Barry is a local historian who has authored or co-authored five books including “Tate House: Crown of the Maine Mast Trade” and the novel “Pyrrhus Venture.” He lives in Portland.