World War II was the first war that was really recorded in visual media. The proliferation of cameras led to some of the most harrowing photographs and footage recorded to date. Images of cities laid to waste by bombers, tanks, and trucks unlike anything we’d seen before, and portraits of humanity at its worst that emerged from the era are nothing short of iconic. It’s hard to imagine that anything could make these pictures more epic, until now.
Artist Billy Ludwig, head of a creative company called Thirteenth Floor, recently released a series of black and white photos from World War II with Star Wars overlays. Called “SWVSWWII,” the collection takes classic public domain photos from World War II, and sets them as the backdrop of Star Wars scenes.
“I was thinking of how many of George Lucas’ ideas and concepts for Star Wars derived from World War II, so … I decided to mix the two together,” Ludwig told Task & Purpose.
And lucky for us, he was willing to share some of these incredible prints.
