Fascinating art
Here’s a brilliant idea brilliantly executed: photographer Irina Werning’s “Back to the Future” project, in which she re-photographs people in the poses, place, and clothing they were wearing in a photo from childhood or youth:
Go look, and tell me which ones you liked best. I’ll say what my favorites were in the comments section. I loved the one above because of how perfectly the boy presaged the man; if you knew facial musculature well, you could look at that young face and predict exactly where the lines would come in 20 years. Others are shocking by how much the subject has changed. I’d be very curious to hear what these pictures evoked for you. Thoughts of your childhood self, what has remained, what has faded.
(I know I found this link originally on another blog, but I can’t recall where, so hat tip to someone, somewhere.)
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6 Responses to “Fascinating art”
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What a great collection of photos! My favourites include the girl with sunglasses on the parquet floor – it’s as if she’s grown into exactly the kind of adult that she was wanting to be when she was younger! Also the sisters in their grass skirts and leis – how lovely to see how things like how their height differences have changed, and the parents on the same street years later – so changed and yet so much remains, in the street and the couple.
Well put, Elle! I liked that one too — and I identified with the girl for some reason, which I couldn’t put my finger on. But I think you nailed it: as a child, I was always practicing to be my adult self!
I liked the girl with the Maori or Maori-like tattoos; she had changed her physical appearance so much, but was still, so very clearly, the same person (even the lines of the ink seemed to reinforce her natural expressions and posture).
And I loved the girl with the long hair, who looked like a boy in her toddler-age photo.
Not “like” so much, but it is the one haunting me: the three girls in the hula outfits. As young girls they look so comfortable just being dressed up, but as young women sexuality has reared it’s scary head and they no longer look at home in their bodies.
Also I’m fascinated by how much the relationship between the two photos of “La Negra” changed for me when I realized that the dark lines were tattoos, not shadows.
I like them all-they are really cool. The ones that I find most striking are the ones where the adult faces have been superimposed onto the baby pictures. Odd but beautiful!
Nico from France is my favorite. I love his joker grin. There’s something so natural about his re-do, like he’s been making that face all his life. I also cannot get over the chubby baby face of Fer in Buenos Aires.
I like Cecile in France, in the white T-shirt, glaring defiantly at the camera. I’m glad she can still find her defiance and that she grew into her hiking boots.