Ghosts of World War II in Normandy - Then & Now combined

article

Compartido por Winston Churchill (

Teniente) July 09, 2016

Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse is a great artist but also better historian and researcher. He makes an amazing work. He combines historical pictures with photos made on the exact same spot today. He says us that he try to make people realise that history is all around us. That where you live, work or go to school, once people fought, died or simply experienced a different kind of life. We are history, history is us.

Originally, he made it as part of his research. Now, he makes this combination photos because of his interest for the subject and for try and make people think about the past, remember and respect the sacrifices made by the generations before us. He's spent countless hours doing research, trying to figure out where old photos were taken, visiting the location, making the ‘today photo’ and then combining them. His passion for history but also his knowledge of the past and experience as a film maker helps him tell a story by deciding what to remove, what to let seep trough and what to accentuate.

In the following is shown part of his work dedicated to World War II in Normandy, France. These images and their captions have been collected from his Flickr and Facebook pages. Live the history through them!

Cherbourg, avenue de Paris, ancien Poste de Police, jardin Public

[Via www.flickr.com and Ghosts of History]

Captain WH Hooper, who commands the Company of the 314th IR of the 79th IUS D and some of his men surround a column of German prisoners. Column takes a southerly direction, it will join the POW camps located on the plateau of the Mountain Roule, near the farm of Fieffe

[Via www.flickr.com and Ghosts of History]

Rue Dom Pedro, civilians and American soldiers tear down the sign indicating the headquarters of the Todt organization in Cherbourg

[Via www.flickr.com and Ghosts of History]

26 June 1944, German soldier lying dead on a sidewalk in front of the old café Etasse, Rue Armand Levéel to Cherbourg

[Via www.flickr.com and Ghosts of History]

A group of civilians and GI's in front of the notary office of Trévières Street Octave Mirbeau. The entrance is decorated with French and allied flags

[Via www.flickr.com and Ghosts of History]

American troops in the center of Cherbourg pass under a balcony whith English, American and French flags

[Via www.flickr.com and Ghosts of History]

France, 1944. Rue des Fossés Plissons à Domfront (Orne). German soldiers surrendering

[Via www.flickr.com and Ghosts of History]

Grandcamp-Maisy (Calvados) dans la cour de l'église, rue du Commandant Philippe Kieffer.Flanked by units of a 9th Air force, citizens of a village behind the front lines in Normandy celebrate their traditional Bastille Day for the first time in over four years. Here they honor their war dead of 1914-1918 and 1939-1944