The way we were… now

Irina Werning, currently of Buenos Aires, Argentina admits on her website that she is nosy when it comes to old family photos in her friends’ homes. But her curiosity has taken a creative turn: She thought it would be fun to re-create these photos from decades ago, complete with identical (or nearly-so) clothing and accessories. She has titled the project, “Back to the Future,” which you can view here.

The things most striking to me — besides how incredibly precise the re-creations are, down to the photos’ aged patina — are the subtle differences in facial expression. I think it’s most noticeable in the pairs based on the subjects as babies and small children. I realized it’s a matter of self-consciousness and self-awareness mixed with memory. The facial expressions of the older children, teens and young adults are fairly well replicated. I tend to think the subjects are more likely to remember what they were feeling and thinking when these photos were taken, and therefore can capture the internal moment to match the external setting fairly accurately.

But I think the slight differences in the pairs based on baby and toddler photos are quite telling. The adults in these re-creations look like they’re trying to capture something they not only cannot quite recall, but now only have an adult framework for. We’ve all seen baby photos with a certain blankness to the expression. It’s not that ‘nobody is home’, but rather that the mind behind the eyes is fresh and filter-less; the soul in the body is taking everything in, continuously in awe. Later, we have collected enough of the world — and its reflections of us — to construct an idea of ourselves and project something back out. There is no way for these photo subjects to recall what sensation, reaction or impression that two-month old face is showing us. So they take what cues they can from a subtle set of the lips or brow, and those cues get magnified beyond themselves — betraying an acute awareness of a ‘look’ to be achieved, as well as the vast distance traveled from the deep, empty well of innocence.

To my mind, there are two sets that come the closest to mimicking a baby-face, both quartets: one titled, “Fer in 1970 and 2010, Buenos Aires,” and the other, “Flor in 1975 and 2010, Buenos Aires.” Even in these, there are suggestions of that self-consciousness. Flor’s blankness has a slight studied quality to it; Fer has just a touch of extra humor that is not quite self-mocking, but belies an awareness of absurdity. I find myself wondering if both are actors or comics, and what their astrological charts might contain that could point to some shape-shifting ability, a malleability of self-concept or a blank slate waiting to be filled.