Old Narva Comes Back to Life Through Carl Sarap’s Photographs
Text Timo Raussi Photo Virumaa Museum Archive RMF 949:105
Photographs taken almost 90 years ago by Estonian photographer Carl Sarap, 1893–1942, have been given a new lease of life with the help of modern technology. Aleksei Bitskoff, an illustrator and multimedia specialist born in Narva and now living in London, has created a beautifully atmospheric, animation-style video with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on Sarap’s views of the historic Old Town of Narva. The video has attracted widespread interest and is currently spreading rapidly across social media.
Sarap is considered one of Estonia’s most significant documentary photographers. He was born in the village of Voka near Toila in eastern Virumaa in spring 1893 and died in a Soviet forced-labour camp in November 1942, after being arrested with his camera more than a year earlier in his home area of Voka. At the time, the region had been declared a border-security zone amid the turmoil of war. During the 1930s, Sarap travelled extensively around Estonia, documenting landscapes, villages and towns, but his best-known work is associated specifically with Old Narva.
Published in 1939, the photographic book “Wana Narwa” brought together Sarap’s detailed images of the city’s Baroque buildings, streets, churches and squares. The historical introduction to the book was written by Arnold Soom, archivist of the city of Narva. The publication later became an invaluable work of cultural history, as almost the entire city of Narva was destroyed in the bombing of 1944 during the Second World War. Today, Sarap’s photographs are therefore important sources for researching Narva’s lost architecture and urban landscape, as well as for restoration and reconstruction projects.
Bitskoff’s new animated video brings these historic photographs to a new audience. The AI-enhanced clips, stylistically influenced by the visual language of Japanese Studio Ghibli animated films that particularly appeals to younger audiences, convey an impression of what life on the streets of Narva might have been like in the 1930s, before the destruction caused by the war.
The video is a tribute to Carl Sarap’s life’s work, but the story behind its creation is also an interesting example of creative thinking. IdaRepost, a community and culture website that interviewed the animation’s creator, reports that Aleksei, who has previously worked as a comic artist and caricaturist and now illustrates children’s books for international publishers, had been developing for some time a story about a bat named Indrek who lives in Narva Castle. One day, Indrek decides to go flying during daylight to see the city in a new light. Bitskoff gradually expanded the idea into a full adventure story about Old Narva, its underground passages and its mythical characters.
You can admire the result of the collaboration between Aleksei Bitskoff, AI tools and Carl Sarap here.
We wrote in early August about the partial reconstruction of Narva’s Old Town and the virtual-reality room dedicated to Old Narva in the city hall. A remarkably detailed scale model of the Old Town is now on display in the large hall of the Narva Museum’s art gallery. You can read more about it here.
To learn more about this and similar topicsAleksei Bitskoff animation Carl Sarap Narva Old Town of Narva scale model Tourism VR
