Olivo Barbieri

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It’s often hard to convince people that Olivo Barbieri’s aerial photographs are real. They look uncannily like hyperdetailed models, absent the imperfections of reality. Streets are strangely clean, trees look plastic, and odd distortions of scale create the opposite effect of what we expect from aerial photography—a complete overview, like military surveillance…

2 Works

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Using a large-format camera that allows him to play with the layers of focus in a picture, Barbieri turns real scenes into spaces that seem impossible. But despite their unreal feel, all of his images have been created by carefully controlling the optical techniques of his camera and haven’t been digitally altered or distorted after shooting.