Melbourne-based photographer Ben Thomas skillfully incorporates the tilt-shift technique to turn landscape and lifestyle photos into scenic shots of toy cities for his Cityshrinker project. The Australian world traveler transforms the skyscrapers of major metropolises like New York City and London into model buildings, visually shrinking their towering appearance with a few quickly calculated adjustments to his captured depth of field with additional attention to color saturation. Thomas refers to his approach as a “playful effect.”
We’ve seen our fair share of tilt-shift photography used at events like the Olympics, but Thomas’s series offers a alternative look at landmarks and skylines that reintroduces us to landscapes we’ve seen many times over and presents an expertly crafted set of images that give insight into its respective city’s lifestyle. It’s like we’re looking through a child’s gaze at major cities for the first time. Every building, bridge, and vehicle is a toy to grab and play with. Even sumo wrestlers in Japan look like action figures that could topple over at the wave of a child’s hand.
Paris
Tokyo
London
New York City
Berlin
San Francisco
Las Vegas
Melbourne
Ben Thomas website
via [Daily Mail]