A photographer in her own right, digital artist (and Photoshopper extraordinaire) Jane Long reimagines long-forgotten vintage photos in charming ways. Originally begun as a project to improve her retouching skills, Long became entranced with the Costică Acsinte Archive whose main goal is to digitize and preserve the photographic work of Romanian WWI photographer Costică Acsinte.

Long was immediately drawn to his photos, but she wanted to give them new life. Thus was born her project, “Dancing with Costică,” wherein she manipulates Acsinte’s photographs to create a new story. The results are lovely and very satisfying. I feel like the original photo subjects would thoroughly approve of Long’s improvements.

“I wanted to change the context of the images. 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.” -J. Long