When I travel, I'm always looking for things that speak about that country ... I always do a lot of research and ask people and try to make people give me (specific) types of pictures.

Photographer Irina Werning

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We were walking one day on the street, and he (my friend) said, 'This is where that picture was taken.' I happened to have time so I stood there and I started thinking how (his mother) would look like today and how the street would have looked like before and now.

Photographer Irina Werning

In the beginning, I contacted people. Then, the project became viral on the Internet, so people started contacting me. I often posted on my website where I was going, and people would send me old pictures of themselves.

Photographer Irina Werning

(Leanne's) picture is just a baby's snapshot. There's not much of a story behind it. I think she had gone inside there and her mother had found her inside there and went quickly to grab her camera, and shot the picture.

Photographer Irina Werning

(Isabella's) family contacted me because she was having her 100th birthday. This woman was very loved by the whole family. She had escaped from Austria during the war because she was Jewish, and she went to live in New York. Every year, she would go back ... to Austria and help someone come to the U.S. She was a great inspiration to her whole family.

Photographer Irina Werning

Each picture is like a completely different world. I work on lots of pictures at the same time. Sometimes you don't find something, so you have to end up making everything. Of course, you can't find some exact clothing or object exactly like in the picture. Often, I have to make it or alter something that I buy. Lots of challenges, but this is the part I most enjoy.

Photographer Irina Werning

Some people say these pictures make them laugh, other people say that they cry. I get all types of reactions. For me, I laugh when I see (the pictures), I smile.

Photographer Irina Werning