Polish Artist Remakes Cheesy American Family Photos Into Surreal Images

Polish artist Weronika Gęsicka is putting a unique twist on those cheesy postcard-like pictures that used to dominate US magazines back in the 1950s and 1960s. She does it by slightly altering the image with some minor details that transform the casual photography into a surreal distorted reality. "The project is based on vintage photographs purchased from an image bank," Gęsicka says. "Most of these photos came from American archives from the 1950s and 1960s." They include family scenes, vacation souvenirs, everyday life, suspended between truth and fiction. It's hard to determine if they are natural and spontaneous, or entirely staged. "We know nothing of the actual ties between the individuals in the photographs; we can only guess at the truthfulness of their gestures and gazes," Gęsicka says. "Are they actors playing happy families, or real persons whose photos were put up for sale by the image bank?" More info: weronickagesicka.com (dyt, theguardian, boredpanda)

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Polish artists are no strangers to surreal, check out these illustrations which show a darker side of modern society.