This series of images is astonishing work. The creator takes historical photos from Leningrad during the Nazi siege, then finds photos from the same locations and perspectives today, and mashes them together. The seam is memory, the return of history's agony:
On a personal note, I experienced something similar in the late 1990s, after returning from Bosnia. Not with identical locations, but feeling the utterly convincing sensation of double vision, war's violence superimposed on peaceful scenes.
(EDITED TO CORRECT URL)
There was a review from Wired about about Fallout 3 where the writer found himself comparing the very dark images from the game with the identical locations in real life DC. He argued it gave the game greater impact. http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2009/01/gamesfrontiers_0126
Posted by: Todd Bryant | February 02, 2009 at 10:49
Todd, is it this one, from Clive Thompson:
http://tinyurl.com/bn6bzj ?
"When I emerged from Tenleytown Station, I knew what it was supposed to look like: a bustling city scene of briefcase-toting wonks, trucks delivering packages, people buying coffee at corner stores. When I visited the location in Fallout 3, I saw nothing but the rusting hulk of a bombed-out blue car, with smoke billowing over the buckled asphalt and buildings as brittle as fall leaves.
I actually began playing a grim sort of game-within-the-game: Every time I found myself in a recognizable location -- like the D.C. suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland -- I'd google some images of it on my computer to compare the lively reality versus the nightmarescape of Fallout 3..."
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | February 03, 2009 at 16:07