In recent years, overlay photos have become all the rage. Several artists have made a living by holding up old black-and-white photos of yesteryear against modern surroundings to highlight what’s changed and what’s remained the same. Today, we travel back in time across the United States and Europe to visit world-famous landmarks and meet famous actors, philosophers, and rock n’ roll stars.
Bob Dylan, Central Park
Here’s photographer and artist Nick Sulivan holding up a photo of legendary American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan ambling along the tree-lined sidewalk on Fifth Avenue to the west of New York City’s Central Park. As you can see, his hair is “blowin’ in the wind” as he takes “shelter from the storm before a “hurricane.”
Bob famously sang, “The times, they are a-changin’” but Central Park looks pretty much the same now as it did when photographer Richard Avedon snapped him in 1965 walking along “just like a rolling stone…”
The Rolling Stones, London
Here’s The Rolling Stones wandering through Covent Garden in London in 1964. They’re on their way to play a gig at the Donmar Warehouse at the heart of the famous Seven Dials, a famous intersection where seven roads intersect.
In the 60 years since Terry O’Neill took this photo, the only changes are some new trees and some scaffolding. But, the Donmar Warehouse has changed multiple times. Before The Beatles and The Stones played there, it used to be a banana-ripening warehouse.
Cool Cats, New York
This photograph of two cool cats was taken on the corner of New York’s 42nd and Madison in 1961. The photographer was American street photographer Garry Winogrand, who was famous for portraying everyday life and mid-20th-century social issues. These two members of the beat generation stand out from the rat race like time travelers!
While you wouldn’t wear an evening dress and pearls to go shopping nowadays — because you’d likely get robbed — the midtown Manhattan buildings haven’t changed at all.
Chinatown, New York
The monochrome picture in this overlay was taken in 1900. It shows Chinese men and a woman delivering a tray of tea, standing on the corner of Pell and Doyes Streets in New York’s bustling Chinatown.
In case you don’t know the Big Apple, Pell Street is a stone’s throw away from Brooklyn Bridge. Nowadays, Chinatown is still full of restaurants, tea shops, and diners selling delicious Dim Sum. A hair salon called Kelly’s sits underneath the red-bricked building.
