There's something comical and quaint about vintage black-and-white photos from 100 years ago. Until, that is, they come to life and start acting like a dream (or a horrendous nightmare.) Artist Kevin J. Weir turns old visions of the world into strange, surreal animations.

Weir, a NYC-based art director, created these Gifs from old images found in the Library of Congress and other large online archives. But he's turned them into something truly... odd.


Edison in his laboratory


Herman A. "Germany" Schaefer (1876-1919), trying out the other side of the camera during the Washington Senators visit to play he New York Highlanders in April, 1911

Ypres, Belgium


Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia, early 1910s


Composer and conductor John Philip Sousa in front of a marching band, May 1914


Neidenburg Church (now Nidzica, Poland), damaged by Russian forces duing WWI, 1914


3rd Ave-42th Street, in the 1910s




Friedrich Ernst II Fürst zu Solms-Baruth (1853-1920), served as a High Chamberlain, the highest ranking court official in Kaiser Wilhelm II's service, c. 1910-1915




General Michel, c. 1910-1915


Labor activist Mother Jones (1837-1930) attending the 1915 hearings of the federal Commission on Industrial Relations at the New York City Hall, New York City


Ruins of Roebling's works, Trenton, New Jersey, January 1915


N.Y. National Guard Practice, February 1915


African American fishermen standing in water, c. 1910-1915


Clearing away debris after a fire in Bangor, Wales, UK, c. 1910-1915


Industrialist Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Heibach (1870-1950), the head of Friedrich Krupp AG, c. 1910-1915


The fort in Przemsyl, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Poland), during WWI, c. 1914-1915


A barrel mounted on a small cart, during WWI, c. 1914-1915


Verdun, France, during WWI


Boxers


Father Gerontius, with a barrow, in Valamo Monastery, Karelia, Russia, 1930s


Hardiman I, the first attempt to build a powered exoskeleton, by General Electric in 1965


The Cybernetic Walking Machine, or Walking Truck, developed by GE engineers in 1968, designed by Ralph Mosher