Pictures of the week: Revising History by Jennifer Greenburg

This series of vintage photographs depicts a woman going about her all-American 1950s life: attending a wedding, bowling with friends, feeding her baby and giggling with the girls in the kitchen.→ Photograph: Jennifer Greenburg

Collected over the years from estate sales and thrift stores, the photographs are genuine with one small exception: the platinum blonde in the shots is Jennifer Greenburg, a photographer and professor of photography in present-day Chicago.→ Photograph: Jennifer Greenburg

It took Greenburg hundreds of hours to remove the central character from each image and replace them with her own body, each time dressed in original vintage clothing, coiffed to match and photographed using a self-timer.→ Photograph: Jennifer Greenburg

Her uncannily realistic poses and styling mean it’s often hard to believe she hasn’t stumbled across a time machine. 'I don’t necessarily look like a modern person,' she admits.→ Photograph: Jennifer Greenburg

The idea behind the project is to confront Greenburg’s belief that photographs are inherently false.→ Photograph: Jennifer Greenburg

The moment captured by a camera, she says, is usually just an approximation of what took place in front of the lens. 'Think about how it feels to look at pictures from a party you went to: they often replace the memory of what we actually experienced.→ Photograph: Jennifer Greenburg

A fan of vintage memorabilia and accessories, Greenburg also had enormous fun transporting herself back 60 years. 'I had a fantastic time,' she says. 'I made myself believe I was back there, living that life.'→ Photograph: Jennifer Greenburg

There was a degree of method acting involved in each shot: 'I studied the original to work out what was happening with the main subject, then tried to summon up the feelings I would have had if I had been there.'→ Photograph: Jennifer Greenburg

If you look closely, a dapper man crops up in more than one shot. He is, in fact, Greenburg’s real-life husband. 'I could never be with anyone else but him, not even in my fantasy world.'→
Photograph: Jennifer Greenburg