There’s something comical and quaint about vintage black-and-white photos from 100 years ago. Until, that is, they come to life and start acting like a dream (or a horrendous nightmare.) Artist Kevin J. Weir turns old visions of the world into strange, surreal animations.
Weir, a NYC-based art director, created these Gifs from old images found in the Library of Congress and other large online archives. But he’s turned them into something truly… odd.
Edison in his laboratory
Herman A. “Germany” Schaefer (1876-1919), trying out the other side of the camera during the Washington Senators visit to play he New York Highlanders in April, 1911
Ypres, Belgium
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia, early 1910s
Composer and conductor John Philip Sousa in front of a marching band, May 1914
Neidenburg Church (now Nidzica, Poland), damaged by Russian forces duing WWI, 1914
3rd Ave-42th Street, in the 1910s
Friedrich Ernst II Fürst zu Solms-Baruth (1853-1920), served as a High Chamberlain, the highest ranking court official in Kaiser Wilhelm II’s service, c. 1910-1915
General Michel, c. 1910-1915
Labor activist Mother Jones (1837-1930) attending the 1915 hearings of the federal Commission on Industrial Relations at the New York City Hall, New York City
Ruins of Roebling’s works, Trenton, New Jersey, January 1915
N.Y. National Guard Practice, February 1915
African American fishermen standing in water, c. 1910-1915
Clearing away debris after a fire in Bangor, Wales, UK, c. 1910-1915
Industrialist Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Heibach (1870-1950), the head of Friedrich Krupp AG, c. 1910-1915
The fort in Przemsyl, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Poland), during WWI, c. 1914-1915
A barrel mounted on a small cart, during WWI, c. 1914-1915
Verdun, France, during WWI
Boxers
Father Gerontius, with a barrow, in Valamo Monastery, Karelia, Russia, 1930s
Hardiman I, the first attempt to build a powered exoskeleton, by General Electric in 1965
The Cybernetic Walking Machine, or Walking Truck, developed by GE engineers in 1968, designed by Ralph Mosher
