Ghosts of Norwich’s past
Dereham Road. Original courtesy of Archant
Images taken almost 70 years ago of Norwich during the Blitz have been blended with the present day.
The result is a series of haunting photographs.
Graphic designer Nick Stone got his inspiration from a Russian photographer, Sergey Larenkov, who used a similar technique on the streets of Leningrad, Prague and Vienna.
As a keen amateur photographer, he’s been taking photographs of streets in Norwich, which he then blends with the originals, using Photoshop. The key is to find the exact spot where the photographer would have stood, to take the modern day photo from.
The photographs, which may form part of an exhibition next year to mark 70 years since the Baedecker Raids, owe a lot to amateur photographers who took the original shots, such as George Plunkett, who spent a lifetime cataloguing the city.
A collection of over 50 photos has been compiled, which you can see at this Flickr account.
Alexandra Rd.Original courtesy of Archant
On this photo of Alexandra Road, just off Earlham Road, Nick Stone has added the caption: This one is for Julia Agnes Neve aged 85, she lived at 29 Alexandra Road. Also Ernest Burton, his wife, Clara, and their children Sybil 13 and John 19 who lived further down at 46. On Wednesday 29 April 1942, they died here.
Another photo, of Somerleyton Street, just off Unthank Road, reveals how badly hit that part of Norwich was: The developments around this chunk of Norwich abound, the whole area being so badly damaged by a very large aerial mine, amongst a host of other unpleasantness dropped from the sky in 1942, Suffolk Street, Norfolk Street, Somerleyton Street, Trory Street, Walpole Street, Globe Place, Manchester Place, Vauxhall Street and Rupert Street as well as the top of Essex Street changed forever, more or less obliterated, there were many injured and killed. Many more made homeless.
Somerleyton Street
Nick Stone is looking for more photos to work on: “If anyone has any photos of wartime Norwich they could lend me, I’d love to hear from them. What makes it real is the stories that go with the photos, so if they know the provenance behind the picture I’d like to hear that too.”
He uses photo manipulation in his day to day work for the graphic design company, Starfish Ltd. To contact Nick with any photos from the past, email nick@starfishlimited.com.
A website displaying all the photos is under construction but they can currently be viewed here, which has had 80,000 hits so far.
Comment
