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Photos Imagine What U.S. Presidents From History Might Look Like Today

By Emma Taggart on February 24, 2021

Ulysses S. Grant

While photos and videos of modern-day U.S. Presidents are constantly featured on our newsfeeds, Presidents of the past are remembered with just a few black and white photos or portrait paintings. Curious about how Presidents from history would look if they were alive today, Award-winning comic book writer Magdalene Visaggio created a manipulated photo series called Modern Presidents.

Visaggio used smartphone apps to create modern-day interpretations of each President. Her subjects include George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, Millard Fillmore, and James Buchanan. Each original photo or painting of the President is presented next to his modern, digitally rendered counterpart, revealing an eerie resemblance to the by-gone head of the United States.

Although the digital interpretations look like they could take many hours to render, Visaggio stressed that they were pretty easy to make. “A lot of people think I'm a digital artist or whatever, so let me clarify how I work,” she says. “Everything you see here is done in Faceapp+Airbrush on my phone. On the outside, each takes between 15-30 mins.” Visaggio adds, “Washington was a pretty simple one-and-done replacement.”

Check out the Modern Presidents series below.