Travel in Time tracks places through time. It brings an exactly matching present-day view of old photographs and postcards by means of a new picture taken from the same spot.
By showing the old and new pictures side-by-side the differences become apparent and the effect of time is revealed. Adding information and stories about the place triggers the imagination and brings more stories.
Travel in Time is a community-engaging and community-building project in collaboration with local people and historical societies and supported by local and regional councils.
Background
People are nostalgic creatures. Remembering our past is fundamental to our existence and memories are an essential part of our life. They make us human and social. They help us regulate our emotions and our function in wider society. In a way our past shapes our identity.
Old pictures of the house, the street, the village, the town, and the city where we grew up and of the people, we lived with bring back memories and stories, in snippets or long conversations.
Talking about our memories is a way of connecting. We like to share stories about places we visited years ago or keep visiting, places where we grew up or gave our first kiss, places our family and friends lived or still live. We are in a way hooked on our history and memories.
A lot of places in our memories have changed. Our house of birth, the street where we played, the village our grandparents lived, the town where we met our partner, and the city where we studied, look different now than all these years ago.
We also like to see how things changed, how locations and things are now, and how it was when our parents, or even our grandparents, and great grandparents were young. As such we connect to our past and share it with future generations.
Societal impact
Community building and bringing people together to tighten the regional and local fabric, revive the communication between villagers and villages, and people visiting places, in collaboration with local and regional history groups.
Creating awareness of local history and the importance of specific features such as a canal, a factory, a park, and a woodland for the development of the region and its cities, towns, villages and landscapes.
Capturing oral history and creating a lasting memory of life and work in a specific region during the past century.
Encouraging people to discover new places to visit or to hike or to look at known places with a different eye.
Made by
As a freelancer, she works as a digital nomad, based in Waltham on the Wolds, Leicestershire in the East Midlands (UK).
Travel in Time is a project of Estelle Slegers Helsen. She is a heritage addict and photographer. Her passion is connecting people, to each other, to their roots in the past and the present, and to the beauty of life itself. Estelle is always in search of the perfect light.