A photographer has spent months tracking down people he snapped on the streets of his hometown 30 YEARS ago and painstakingly recreated the pictures.
Paramedic Chris Porsz used to spend hours in the 1980s walking around the city of Peterborough, Cambs and taking candid shots without his subjects knowing.
Three decades later Chris, 56, who is known as the "paramedic paparazzo" decided to reconstruct his favourite photos to find out what these people were doing now. Now amazingly he has managed to remake three of his incredible snapshots of time after his subjects recognised themselves when he published the pictures in his local paper.
"I had absolutely no idea the photo had been taken, I was shocked when I saw my picture," said Tony Wilmot, 51, who was snapped saying goodbye to his wife at the railway station.
"At the time we thought the platform was empty so we couldn’t believe it when my parents showed us the photo from the local paper."
Tony is seen leaning out of the train to give his wife Sally a kiss as they part at Peterborough railway station.
It was taken in 1980 when the couple were working in different parts of the country a year before they got married.
"I was 22 and working in Essex as a teacher and Sally was 21 and in Stafford as a local government officer," said Tony.
"I think we must have met up at my parents in Peterborough for a family occasion.
"Sally’s train went back slightly later than mine so she was seeing me off."
The pair, who are now both headteachers and live in Litchfield, Staffs, invited son Tom, 22 and daughter Jenny, 20 to watch their fond farewell being reconstructed.
"The station hadn’t changed but there are no pull down windows on modern trains so I had to lean out of the door instead," he added.
"It was quite hard as they wouldn’t stop the trains for us so I had to keep jumping on and off as they came into the station until Chris had his shot."
His wife Sally, who he has now been married to for 26 years, said it was a lovely moment for Chris to have captured.
"We often didn’t see each other for three or four weeks so it was a very significant parting," she said.
"It’s hard for our children to understand as nowadays everyone has mobiles and it’s easy to text but back then we had to go to a call box if we wanted to contact each other."
Health care assistant Trudie Talbot, 51, was also shocked to see she had been snapped by Chris.
Trudie, who still lives in Peterborough, is seen sitting in the centre of the city with a mystery man and dog drinking a can of Vimto.
She saw her picture completely by chance after she was flicking through a calendar of Chris’ photos at the hospital.
"I was looking at the pictures and suddenly realised it was me. I was gobsmacked, I hadn’t known anything about it at the time," she said.
"I’ve tried to work out what I was doing and I think the photo was actually taken on my 21st birthday.
"The man in the picture is my husband Dave, who was back from the oil rigs for my birthday and we must have wandered into the town with our dog."
The photo was taken in June 1980, six months after the couple got married and Zeb the Afghan dog was a wedding present from her husband.
Trudie, was working as a hairdresser at the time, but left the job to start a family and the couple now have three daughters, Vicky, 29, Emily, 27 and Yvette, 25.
The pair are still together after 30 years but sadly Zeb the dog ran away a year after the picture was taken.
"My husband was very emotional when he saw the picture and it’s strange as my youngest daughter is now a hairdresser and not much older than I was then," she said.
"My 21st birthday was a really significant moment in my life and it’s amazing that Chris captured it.
"I remember it was a lovely day with Dave being home and it’s great to have a lasting reminder.
"I’m not sure why we were drinking Vimto but I guess it was a favourite drink at the time."
Tim Goodman was a 12-year-old boy when Chris took a picture of him on his bike talking to a policeman.
The 42-year-old didn’t even recognise himself in the photo from 1980 and initially thought the young lad was his brother.
"Someone in my family saw the picture in the local paper and thought it could be me but I didn’t believe them," he said.
"We had to look back through family albums to see if it was me or my brother.
"I couldn’t believe it as I don’t remember an incident with a policeman."
Tim, who grew up in Peterborough, said he spent his childhood cycling around the city.
"I often went on bike rides and the bike in the picture is one I made from two bicycles stuck together," he said.
"I’m not sure what the policeman was saying to me but I imagine he may have been ticking me off about cycling on the path."
Tim, who left school at 16, is now married with six children and is a successful businessman with a large coach company in Peterborough.
"It was fun doing the reconstruction. None of the buildings in the centre are different but all the shops have changed," he said.
David Harvey, 51, who was the policeman in the picture, also had no idea the photo had been taken and can not remember the meeting.
"Neither of us can remember the conversation. I guess it was just a snippet in time," he said.
"One of my colleagues spotted the picture in the paper but it was so grainy I wasn’t convinced it was me at first."
David was a probationary constable in his first year, walking the city centre on the beat.
He retired last year after 30 years in the police force and having worked his way up to Chief Superintendent for Cambridgeshire.
"It would have been a typical day for me. I was 21 and enjoying the job," said Dave, who has now retired to nearby Rutland.
"I showed the photo to my son who has just completed his first year in the MET police and it was lovely for him to see me at the same age as he is now.
"I’ve put the picture on my wall. It’s a lovely memento of my police career."
Chris, who began taking amateur photos after the birth of his children, said he is amazed at the stories behind his pictures.
"Photography has always been a hobby for me and I’ve done it as a way to relax from my stressful job.
"I’ve always been interested in taking pictures of people and if there was something unusual happening that caught my eye I would snap it.
"It has been really exciting to be able to trace some of the people I have photographed.
"You often see pictures of buildings then and now, but I think it’s quite unusual to recreate a scene with the same people."
Chris is now hoping to make a book of his photos and wants to create even more reconstructions.
"I did some photos of punks in the 1980s and it would be fantastic to see what those people look like now," he added.
