Composition for impossible photography

Video

Video

Working in two dimensions is easy.

The trick is to make our photograph look like 3D. Well, Erik Johansson has taken this one step further. He likes to trick the eye with his photography. His subtle constructions in the pictures make you look, think and look again. Most of his pictures are actually impossible. But the images are constructed so as to realise the reality in impossibility.

If that sounds convoluted, so are his pictures. In the video Johansson not only talks around the way he conceived the pictures, be also describes the compositional theory behind them. It’s very simple, but it is also illuminating for our general ideas about perspective and reality.

Enough from me. This short video (6mins.22secs) will fill you with ideas and give you some new perspectives… enjoy!

Erik Johansson: Impossible photography


Filmed Nov 2011 • Posted Feb 2012 • TEDSalon London Fall 2011
TED – Ideas worth spreading  External link - opens new tab/page

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By Damon Guy (author and Photokonnexion editor)

Damon Guy - Netkonnexion

Damon Guy (Netkonnexion)

Damon is a writer-photog and editor of this site. He has run some major websites, a computing department and a digital image library. He started out as a trained teacher and now runs training for digital photographers.
See also: Editors ‘Bio’.

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