SubscribeMichael Hughes (Photography)
Posted in Visual, Art, Photography on July 5th, 2007. By Ona Vinyamata.
Michael Hughes is a photographer from London that one day came up with something new: capturing different layers of reality.
Hughes’ idea was a wonderful naive one: taking a picture of a souvenir in the context of the real subject the souvenir represents. This results in a playful optic illusion where a piece of reality is replaced by a representation of that same piece of reality. Pictures are not manipulated in any other way than minor image retouches. The real fun of it is people loved Hughes idea and wanted to take home as a souvenir one of his souvenir pictures.
The truth is that the joy this kind of images tend to create in the viewer has a lot to do with the current tendency of going back to the basic techniques as we’ve pointed out with, for example, Nikki McClure, Seonna Hong or Dominique Donois. We were first impressed by the possibilities of 3D imaginary, and we are now impressed by those who create visual toys directly playing with their physical tools.
Everything that’s real or comes from real (a “real texture”, “a real sunset”) has now an extra value. 3D is starting to be used only for those images that need a fake look (that are fantastic or exaggerated), or for all those that need a realistic look but couldn’t be created in reality. In other situations, getting it from reality is more “handmade” and therefore more valuable. Thumbs up then for simple and creative ideas, that long after we’ve thought we’ve seen all.. still amaze and inspire us.
[From the “Souvenir” collection we recommend giving a look to this one, this one and this one. You can find the whole set here].
3 Comments
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This is a very cool idea, we’ve seen similar things in Red Cross or Fotoprix spots, but always with pictures.
I like the idea of objects replacing reality and then being photographed.
Comment by Neal on July 9, 2007
Fotoprix “Perfect pictures for an imperfect world”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi-h-yfR-Rg
Comment by Maria G. on July 9, 2007
Did anyone try this with video? Imagine the top of the twin towers, burning. This image in a TV set, and this TV placed so that the shooted image matches the real background. And of course, all this recorded.
Comment by Júlia on July 9, 2007