Ransom Riggs
Dear Photograph
by Ransom Riggs - June 24, 2011 - 10:47 AM

Old photographs have been finding their way onto the Internet in new and unexpected forms lately (I blogged about one of them, Back to the Future, a few months ago). Dear Photograph is one of these projects, a website that invites submissions of photographs of photographs from the past in the present, accompanied by a bit of text (which is the “dear photograph” part of the package). For instance:

Me and my first bike. The bike I have now goes a little bit faster.

Or this:

I thought Dad never took a picture of me, ever. Then I noticed his reflection in the glass.

Lots more are here. The forty minutes I spent trolling through these pictures is proof, I think, that I’m a nostalgic fool; I even get nostalgic for other people’s memories.

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Comments (7)

  1. I like this better than the Back to the Future one, this is weird, but really cool!

    posted by Wayne Stevens on 6-24-2011 at 11:25 am

  2. Love it. I’m gonna try it myself :)

    posted by Lola on 6-24-2011 at 11:56 am

  3. So cool. I love the idea. I must be a nostalgic fool also.

    posted by tess on 6-24-2011 at 12:48 pm

  4. How cool is that! I’m excited to explore dearphotograph.com.

    posted by Heidi R on 6-24-2011 at 2:17 pm

  5. The word “nostalgic” comes from Greek root words that mean homesickness. Nostalgia, indeed.

    posted by Joan on 6-24-2011 at 2:54 pm

  6. oh wow, looking at these made me tear up. Every house i have lived in is an empty lot now, exept the current one. Wish I had more time…

    posted by Jon on 6-25-2011 at 2:13 am

  7. I have always been drawn to the idea of comparing past with present, observing how time changes things. This is cool.

    posted by melissa on 6-26-2011 at 11:21 pm

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