New York street artist Jilly Ballistic has been borrowing black and white photos from an earlier era of economic depression to paste on the streets for half a dozen years or so. The effect is nostalgic and sometimes puzzling, as they are often evocative of WWII era air raids and nuclear attacks.

In a year where the world population has become frightened of airborne contagion and the very topic of protective face masks has taken on politically charged emotions, Jilly’s modest dressmakers and librarians engulfed with rubber/glass masks and elephantine hoses are our chums. We now imagine a sort of kinship with these people from another time – a reassuring familiarity across the decades.

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