Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Petey Ulatan’s Digital Photo Manipulations of Cubic Landscapes

Honolulu, Hawaii based photographer and designer Petey Ulatan often creates images that explore the impossible. A recent series, which Ulatan posts to his Instagram page, takes this idea and applies it to infinite scenarios: digital photo-manipulations of his own photographs from his travels, others from Google images, that re-shape the world as if it were folded into a giant cube.

Honolulu, Hawaii based photographer and designer Petey Ulatan often creates images that explore the impossible. A recent series, which Ulatan posts to his Instagram page, takes this idea and applies it to infinite scenarios: digital photo-manipulations of his own photographs from his travels, others from Google images, that re-shape the world as if it were folded into a giant cube.

“I like to describe myself as a photographer with a graphic designer’s heart. I’ve been designing since I could pick up a pencil and taking photographs for as long as I remember,” Ulatan shares. It should come as no surprise that Ulatan is a fan of science fiction films and minimalist architecture, whose images resemble Inception’s mind-bending dream landscapes, or the thematic perspectives in Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

What began as a fun experiment took Ulatan several months to perfect, discovering how simple changes can alter our perception of the picture entirely. “For some images, I would mask out the sky and add another layer of another photo of a sky to create the illusion that it’s coming from one world.” Some of his most astonishing images are of surfers riding up an epic tidal wave, or the inverted skylines of actual cities. Each involves a subtle play on reflection and symmetry, elements from our reality turned into a lucid dream world.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Australian artist Alexia Sinclair looked to the 18th-century French royal court for inspiration for her latest photo series, "Rococo," currently on view at Black Eye Gallery in Darlinghurst, Australia. For the series, Sinclair created opulent images that evoke the pleasure-seeking ways of Marie Antoinette and her ilk. Models lounge on beds that Sinclair constructed by hand from fresh flowers. They luxuriate in elaborate fabrics that seem to melt off their bodies. There's certainly an erotic element in the work as Sinclair plays with the conservative, high femme costumes of the era, juxtaposing ruffles and lace with exposed skin.
This year, JR became one of the Olympic Games’ first artists in residence. And the French artist took the opportunity to a grand level with three massive sculptures scattered across Rio. JR’s black-and-white photos of athletes, erected with scaffolding, loom over passers-by, whether jumping over a building or plunging into the water. The images were installed in Flamengo, Botafogo, and Barra da Tijuca, respectively. JR was featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 17.

Photographer Jan Hoek collaborated with Ugandan-Kenyan fashion designer Bobbin Case on a project focused on the Boda Boda motor taxis roaming Nairobi. As the drivers crafted vibrant and accessorized bikes to stand out each other, the pair worked with a set of them to create attire to match. The result is the photo series “Boda Boda Madness.”

Iranian artist Negar Farajiani uses her own self-portrait in a series of puzzles, where she distorts, hides, and reveals her physical appearance and identity. To make the puzzles, Faraijani cuts identical jigsaw pieces from dry mounted photographs. She then reassembles the pieces to create new, slightly chaotic and impractical compositions.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List