Surreal Manipulated Photos Capture Strange Scenes
Erik Johansson takes photo editing and manipulation to new levels with his ever-growing collection of creative, innovative and amazing scenes of altered architecture and unbelievable built environments, distorted objects and twisted imagery – all while preserving an eerie photo-realism from the original photographic subject.
Given his emphasis on constructed objects, the care with which he crafts every detail of each image and controls the overall composition, it is perhaps no surprise that this photographer’s background is not in the arts but in computer engineering and interactive design.
The rich three-dimensional complexity of each edited photograph is accomplished using exclusively two-dimensional computer editing tools and each work is based on a real photograph, manipulated, altered and added to in a layered and sequential process.
Many of the scenes are almost believable, at least for a moment – one could almost imagine a house being carried away in a storm, a church tower disappearing from view into the sky or a group of deranged construction works playing a giant-sized game of Tic-Tac-Toe.
While a signifcant portion of his work focuses on structures a fair amount of it also includes or revolves around individuals in impossible situations or performing surrealistic feats. Even with more organic subject matter, however, his approaches and edits are always a form of photo-art tempered with a scientific mind.
“Erik Johansson (born 1985) is a photographer and visual artist from Sweden based in Prague, Czech Republic. His work can be described as surreal world created by combining different photographs. Erik works on both personal and commissioned projects with exhibitions and clients all around the world.”
“In contrast to traditional photography he doesn’t capture moments, he captures ideas with the help of his camera and imagination. The focus is on the story and the goal is to make it look as realistic as possible even if the scene itself contains impossible elements. In the end it all comes down to problem solving, finding a way to capture the impossible.”
