Collages by Otto Neu
Old and new photos of the same location are craftily mixed to create time portals. The original post with all the images is at https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/CzShBS0G4BeDnJ1dVL50Lw
Some collages help you block out ugly new buildings and appreciate the original street landscape:
Corner of Avenue Edward VII (Yan'an Road) and Rue Montauban (Sichuan Road), view toward the Bund.
Others remind you how much war, poverty and injustice every corner of Shanghai has witnessed:
Refugees on the steps of the HSBC Building on the Bund.
Troops and sandbag barricades in front of the Cathay Hotel, in 1937.
I, too, like to imagine how the original residents (in this case, the architect Tomashevsky’s family) inhabited their properties.
Art deco residence on Tianping Road, then Rue Magniny.
Yet other collages show how much freedom and opportunity existed, now missing...
Students parading against the black market, in front of the Bank of China, in 1949.
Sports-themed float is passing the corner of Huaihai and Maoming Roads, in 1950.