What if a photograph could transport you back several decades in time? Argentine photographer Irina Werning offers this unique experience through her viral photography project called "Back to the Future." Her innovative concept involves inviting people to recreate childhood or youth photographs years later, meticulously reproducing every detail including poses, clothing, settings, and lighting. The result is a collection of striking diptychs where past and present correspond with unsettling precision.
Launched in 2010, the project quickly gained international attention and went viral across social media platforms. Behind the apparent simplicity lies an enormous undertaking, as each image requires meticulous reconstruction that is almost cinematographic in its attention to detail. By playing with codes of memory and nostalgia, Werning manages to freeze time while revealing the powerful emotions we attach to our visual memories.
The concept originated from a simple idea of bringing old photographs back to life. When Werning encounters archival snapshots, she envisions how these same people could pose today in identical circumstances. Nothing is left to chance in the recreation process – decor, accessories, angles, and lighting are all precisely replicated. This millimeter-perfect precision creates captivating portraits where emotion blends with fascination for the passage of time.
Thanks to a grant she received in 2011, Werning was able to expand her project significantly, ultimately immortalizing more than 250 portraits across 32 countries. This human adventure transforms each photo session into a genuine intimate journey, both for the models participating and for those who discover the resulting images. The project has become a way to reconnect people with their personal histories.
When published online, these photographs rapidly circled the globe, capturing the attention of internet users worldwide. Social media platforms amplified the project's impact, and news outlets praised the work's genius in its simplicity. Each diptych tells a unique yet universal story that combines humor, tenderness, and nostalgia, capable of touching entire generations. Werning explains her fascination with the emotions that emerge when confronting past and present – laughter, melancholy, and tenderness create a mixture that explains the project's incredible resonance with the general public.
Following the project's success, Werning published a photography book in June 2014, compiling four years of images collected from around the world. The concept has even inspired advertising campaigns, notably for Deutsche Bahn, Germany's national railway company, which used the idea to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their BahnCard by playing on themes of continuity through time.
With "Back to the Future," Werning has created much more than a series of images – she has designed a time machine capable of reminding us that despite the passing years, we remain fundamentally the same. For those interested in similar projects, British photographer Chris Porsz has undertaken a comparable initiative, recreating photographs of strangers in the same locations 40 years later, demonstrating the universal appeal of this concept of temporal photography.
