志异 Draft by Drama box december 2013 (english) | Page 68

Looking into the Past

dr af t vo l 2 is su e 2

m e m o r y x s p ac e

o p en c a ll

68

submitted by Yeh Yue Hann

The method is simple. Find an old photo and try to line
up the photo with its present day scene. The result is
a juxtaposition of the past onto the present.
In 2009, American Jason Powell started a
Flickr group called ‘Looking into the Past’ where he
superimposed old images he found from photographic
archives into their present day state. The practice
sparked a small following within the online community,
which responded with their own contributions. Some of
whom took their own family photographs to recreate
unique images.
Singapore has gone through many physical changes
over the last few decades, with some iconic landscapes
of a generation such as the Stamford Road National
Library, already lost, but many still remain.
In a bid to recapture some lost memories, I
flipped through family albums to find old photographs
I could use to express my nostalgia. The exercise
reconnected me with my personal memories and also those
of my family. Returning physically to the same location
of the original photographed image allowed me to
reconnect with that memory. Standing on the ground
where that photograph was taken made me feel like I
was there again, even if only in my mind.
It was truly looking into my past.

This
the 1
Seng Me
the
founta
thou
back
undergo
reborn
Gal