May
15
Prince Principle Brings History to Life
May 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment
Navy V-12's raised the flag during World War II
This year in honor of National Library Week (April 8 – 14), Jerome Library held a special activity each day of the week. On Thursday, the Center for Archival Collections celebrated by bringing history to life through pictures using the Prince Principle.
Administrators take over the lawns for a day. WW II
The general idea of the Prince Principle is to superimpose a historical photo into the present day setting. This can be done in many ways, most simply by physically holding and lining up the historical photo with its present-day landscape.
Jerome Library Deck
In this way, the CAC was able to make our very own Prince Principle photos here on BGSU’s campus. The Prince Principle has become a popular trend on photo sharing sites like flickr.
School of Art, then and now
One group, Looking Into the Past, has gained over 4,000 members, bringing history alive all over the world.
A student addresses the campus from the steps of Williams Hall, ca. 1970
Another website entitled Dear Photograph is dedicated to the concept as well, allowing people to attach reminisces to their personal photos with nearly 100,000 followers between Facebook and twitter.
A more advanced method of the Prince Principle can be done by digitally superimposing the historic photo onto the contemporary scene, allowing for a more professional look. Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov provides an excellent example of just how profound an impact the Prince Principle can have, by imposing photos of World War II on their modern-day locations. In the picture below, Larenkov took a picture of victims of a shelling from 1941 in Leningrad to contrast with St. Petersburg in 2012. His collection is truly haunting and helps to realize and make relevant the devastation from the war.
To learn more about the Dear Photograph project, visit: http://dearphotograph.com/
To View Sergey Larenkov’s complete WWII gallery, visit: http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/world_war_ii_photos_superimposed_over_recent_photos
At Historypin.com, users can post historic or more recent photographs, linking them to maps. See: http://www.historypin.com/
–Sarah Gluckin