Photographer set up models and scenes, amazing recreations of historic London

[kenny]

As a photographer, I'm trying to visualize the massive amount of detailed work here ... researching, setting up the scenes, models, makeup, hair, costumes, the lighting.

London photographer wins award for Thames images

The prize-winning series of photographs depicts Londoners in scenes from the capital's past.

www.bbc.com

 

[VRBeauty]

How can I say this without sounding like - I dunno - a snob or something? Call me a curmudgeon. A lot of what could be considered nostalgic art just rubs me the wrong way. I know that comes largely from having been somewhat immersed in the land of jigsaw puzzles. Nostalgic themes seem to be very popular in jigsaw puzzles - imagined images of grandmothers baking cookies with the kiddos, happy families shopping in old-fashioned toy stores, teeny-boppers rocking in a record store. Gag me. Part of my reaction has to do with the fact that these scenes are almost always cut-and-paste “art”. But part of it is also has to do with a suspicion that the nostalgia the art is is really invoking is a longing for a simpler time when people like you and me - a gay man and a minority woman - didn’t have to be seen and dealt with every day. And the world was therefore a happier place. (I have to admit that lately, some of these artists have started to add a few racial minorities in their happy pictures.)

What this woman has achieved is certainly a marvel - but a part of me wants to scream that it’s just a gimmick, a very complex way of recapturing what was on the surface a less complex time.

 

[kenny]

While I don't share it, I have no issue with your perspective.
Perspectives just vary.