Becca Saladin is an artist who is on a mission to bring “Photoshop history back to life.” She creates realistic depictions of historical figures based on material evidence and descriptions in order to show how they would look in the modern age or provide faithful depictions from their own time.
According to Saladin, she isn’t simply recreating historical figures from known portraits or sculptures. Instead, she does extensive research and uses multiple sources in order to put together the most accurate image.
“I like to research what people said about them during their own lifetime, and then, of course, find the most accurate portrait of them,” she shared in a recent interview with Bored Panda. “I try to always use images created during the figure’s life, but sometimes I have to go based off of more physical descriptions if they don’t have a reliable portrait.”
Saladin has tackled numerous challenging portrayals so far, going back to Ancient Egypt to do a portrait of Cleopatra and to Ancient Greece to show how Alexander The Great looked. She also does portraits of more recent historical figures like William Shakespeare and Ludwig Van Beethoven, imagining how they would look if born in the present time.
Continue scrolling to check out Saladin’s efforts to Photoshop history back to life.
