An Artist Combined Her Childhood Photos With Her Mom's to Find Out if They Would Have Been Friends

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Danielle Delph

This is the kind of time travel we can get behind.

Artist Danielle Delph’s latest photo project started with a question: “I've always wondered if my mom and I would have been friends had we grown up together,” she explains on her site. “Would we be in the same classes? Would we have the same sense of humor? Would people tell us we're inseparable?”


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Danielle spent six months piecing together childhood photos of herself and her mother in Photoshop. What resulted is a whimsical series, “If I Had Known My Mother Back Then,” and helped Danielle answer her own question: “I’m pretty sure we would have been great friends.”

Danielle Delph

What does Danielle think they would have bonded over? “I'd imagine it would be the same thing most friends talk about,” she told ETonline. “We were both athletes growing up so I could see us commiserate over tennis or swim practice.”

Danielle told us her mom was “pretty lively and spunky” back in the day. “She certainly had a sense of humor about herself and was probably the life of the party.”

Danielle Delph

Danielle continued, “We'd probably go on walks (like in one of the photos) and joke about something that happened in school. Or maybe she'd be the person I lean on when I needed advice.”

As for anything these would-be besties might fight over? “I'm sure we would fight over who has to drive somewhere,” she joked. “I say this because that's often the case now. :)”


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Danielle Delph

Mrs. Delph loved the final product. “She found it really touching,” Danielle said. “It made her cry when she first saw it and she says she goes to the site every day, which she now calls ‘our site.’”

“She thinks that we truly could have been friends.”

Danielle Delph

We asked Danielle if she had plans to do a follow-up with another member of her family: “I do have some ideas in the works,” she told ETonline. “It's all about getting the right imagery and the right age, so if I'm lucky I might be able to pull it off again. We'll see.”

In the meantime, listen to what Jennifer Lopez has to say about how motherhood saved her: