Almost unreal: experiments in photography

This year, I am once again participating in the Tokyo Digital Artist Photographers’ Group Exhibition taking place at the Design Festa Gallery in Harajuku from May 26th until June 1st, and the topic I have chosen this time is “Almost unreal: experiments in photography”. The aim is to present different techniques for producing surreal-looking, conceptual images without the aid of Photoshop — which I have never even installed on my computer! Here are the five works I have on display at the gallery, and how these photos were taken. If you are in Tokyo, I hope you will have a chance to stop by and see them in person, they really do come to life when printed in large format on photo paper!

“UFO Landing”
Yokohama, November 2013

This is a long (3.2 second) exposure of the “Super Planet” at Yokohama Cosmo World. In addition to capturing the movement of this amusement ride through the slow shutter speed, I also zoomed out during the last fractions of a second of the exposure, creating the streaks you see in the outer parts of the image.

A long exposure of an amusement ride at the Yokohama Cosmo World. Again, I zoomed in while the shutter was open to make this look like a whirlpool of light.

“Ghosts that we knew”
Niijima Island, April 2014

This is a long, 25-second exposure. I directed my friend to move every five seconds to a different location and briefly shine a small lantern illuminating his face, so that he appears in the picture multiple times.

A collective creative effort of Aurora and fellow Sri Lankan photographer Sachintha Gurudeniya (Sach), with a composition inspired by a past photo shoot with the ever-amazing Karim Iliya.

“Forever 21”
Shibuya, June 2014

A long exposure where I asked two of my friends (who proved to be very patient and talented models!) to stand completely still for two seconds while the rest of the world was whizzing by.

I went to the famous Shibuya Crossing one night to try to capture that special feeling when one is caught in a beautiful moment and time seems to stand still while the rest of the world is whizzing by. This is the result: a photo of two of my friends who proved to be very patient and talented models, and learned the hard way that standing still for 2 full seconds is not an easy feat!

“Powder Power”
Tokyo, April 2015

The time when we turned a friend’s garage into a make-shift photography studio, complete with strobes, diffusers, and backdrops, and proceeded to throw cornstarch around for the sake of creativity. Model: Daria.

Powder Power

“Rush Hour”
Odaiba, March 2016

A quadruple exposure, merged in-camera, of the area around Odaiba’s rainbow bridge and Diver City. One of the four shots that were combined was deliberately set out of focus.

Rush Hour

Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply