Perhaps one of the most memorable war photographers was Romanian Constantin “Costică” Axinte.
According to Costică Acsinte Archive, he was born on 4th of July, 1897 in a small village called Perieți, Ialomița County. Costică Acsinte participated in WWI as an official war photographer despite his training as a pilot till 15th of June, 1920. As soon as the war was over, he opened a studio.
While innumerable photographs of Acsinte are lost, around 5 000 glass plate negatives were preserved by the Costică Acsinte Archive. Some of these preserved photographs were given a surreal twist by Australian artist Jane Long in her series, Dancing with Costică.
Using digital restoration and photo manipulation, Jane Long transformed the black and white photographs into whimsical works of wonder.
“I wanted to change the context of the images,” says Long. “Photographic practices at the time meant people rarely smiled in photos but that doesn’t mean they didn’t laugh and love. I wanted to introduce that to the images.”
Some people, however, found the series disrespectful to the photographer and to his subjects. Jane Long dismissed this thought. “I wanted people to see these figures as real people, more than just an old photograph. Adding colour completely changes our perception of images.”
Check out some of Jane Long’s Dancing with Costică artworks below:
Dancing with Costică will be exhibited in Ballarat International Foto Biennale from August 22 to September 20.
Check out Jane Long’s website here.
Which photograph is the most surreal of them all? Comment below!