Then and Now: How World War I Locations Look Like After 100 Years

By | January 30, 2016

To commemorate the centenary of the start of WWI, photographer Peter Macdiarmid took photos from World War I and superimposed them onto images of the same locations from today creating an eerie then and now feel.

German soldiers taking a rest during the First Battle of the Marne on the steps of the Vareddes Town Hall, France, 1914.
WWI Photos 1

Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; The Print Collector/Getty Images

A view of the basilica with a tilted statue of the Virgin in Somme, France in 1915.
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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; Apic/Getty Images

Soldiers standing outside the ruins of the railway station at Roye, Somme, France during World War 1, 1917.
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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; Culture Club/Getty Images

The town hall and the belfry of Arras in ruins, seen from the main square (Pas-de-Calais) during World War I.
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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; Roger Viollet/Getty Images

British soldiers are captured by the troops of the Central Powers walking in the main square of the city Bruges.
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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images

Rheims Cathedral during the bombardment in France on April 30, 1917.
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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; Photo12/UIG/Getty Images

A French soldier in the ruins of Verdun after a German bombing in France in 1916.
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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

The destruction of German airplanes at Place de la Concorde in Paris on the day of the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine on November 18, 1918.
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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; Maurice-Louis Branger/Roger Viollet/Getty Images

London street urchins dressed as soldiers with paper hats and canes as guns stand to attention in Trafalgar Square, November of 1914. Behind them is a notice declaring ‘ The Need for Fighting Men is Urgent’.’
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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

A vintage postcard of the 4th King’s Own Royal Lancers Regiment marching into Tonbridge during World War One in March 1915.
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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; Popperfoto/Getty Images