Conor Nickerson: Down the Rabbit Hole, Issue #2

This began when something in my Instagram feed caught my eye:

I wasn't even following The Today Show, so I don't know why this showed up in my feed.

The reason it caught my eye is that around 2016 my brothers and I made a book for my parents for their 50th anniversary that contained photos of us recreating our childhood photos.

Our gift went over very well with our parents.

So when I saw someone doing something similar, but different - recreating his childhood photos by adding his adult self into them - it sounded like a great idea.

Let's take a look at how this unfolded...

I first clicked on the link in The Today Show's Instagram post, which took me to Conor Nickerson's Instagram profile.

I then started scrolling through the images on his profile, looking for images that looked like childhood photos.

I finally got to this one from October 11, 2022 (it had 4,129 likes):

In that post, I read that the series of photos from his childhood was created in 2017 (I missed this in the original Today Show post).

He mentions here that he created an entire YouTube video walk-through of his process editing his childhood photos:

Here's the video on how he did it.

I watched a few minutes of it.

That's great, but where's the original photo series?

I was wishing he included a link to it somewhere.

It wasn't in his Linktree bio link either:

Maybe I'll find it if I go to his website.

Well that wasn't so hard.

I clicked on "photo" and then on "project" and that brought me to this page, where all I had to do was click on "Childhood":

Not so difficult.

Without further ado, let's take a look at the photos:

I like these.

I do think they would offer more entertainment value if he were to first show the original photo, and then show the updated photo.

My brothers did that in the book we made for our parents, and it's a significant part of what makes it so entertaining.

Note to self: dig that book up next time I'm at my parent's house and post it here.

Interestingly, Conor got a tremendous amount of press from this photo series, as he itemizes here at the bottom of this page:

That's pretty cool.

I like the spirit of this project.

Let's see what else Conor has done that he's featured on his website...

He's got a series of surrealist-style photos from 2020 called, "Stranger":

Nice.

What else?

He has a passion project called "tabletops", which is "an ongoing photo series of stories told by tabletops".

Here's the Instagram profile for the project:

Ok, I can see the appeal.

On his website, he also includes portfolios of his portrait photography, concert photography, design work, and other photographs (often in a surrealist style).

He's done a fair amount of video work as well.

As I mentioned before, he made a lengthy video walkthrough of how he added his adult self to his childhood photos called "How I Went Back to My Childhood".

More interestingly, in 2021 during the pandemic he also made a 10 minute video where he talks to younger versions of himself by editing up old videos:

Clever. I like it.

It's essentially the video version of his childhood photo project.

Also featured on his website is quite a few music videos he's made for himself and his friends.

Also in 2021, he made a short film called Lettre à Maple Street:

I love it.

He's (I think it's him?) reading a beautiful, poetic letter to someone he deeply misses.

The letter is read over footage of what is apparently a small town in rural Massachusetts.

The music is nicely done and I'm pretty sure he composed it himself as well.

This short film is a moving work of art made by a true artistic talent.

Moving on, in 2022, he made YouTube video called "Teaser", which is just one minute long:

It seems like it's maybe the trailer for a film (it says, "Coming Soon), but that was 2022 and there's no mention of the full film.

I like it. It's very arty. I like the feel. He's clearly a creative young guy with a knack for film.

And then in 2023 he made a short film in French about obsessive fear:

Very cool. I'm a fan. I could do a whole post on this little video.

In addition to his talent with film he's also a skilled musician with several albums of music available in styles that range from folksongy to soundtracky.

Talented, prolific young man.

He also makes websites and writes poems.

Here's what he has to say about himself:

Interesting stuff.

I enjoyed this rabbit hole.

Conor, if you are reading this, keep making movies.