Istanbul Inception: Surreal Turkish Cityscapes By Aydın Büyüktaş

For the series ‘Flatland‘, Turkish artist Aydin Buyuktas creates surreal cityscapes of Istanbul. Inspired by Edwin Abbat’s book ‘Flatland: A Romance Of Many Dimensions’, the photoshopped images depict the metropolis from surprising perspectives.

h/t: ignant, thecreatorsproject

In a statement about the project, Buyuktas says: “We live in places that most of the times don’t draw our attention, places that transform our memories, places that the artist gives another dimension; where the perceptions that generally cross our minds will be demolished and new ones will arise.”

To create the series, Büyüktaş created a 3D simulation of Istanbul to find his camera positions. He then deployed a drone to capture various parts of the city.

“Waiting for the right weather was challenging,” Büyüktaş tells The Creators Project. “So many times I had to turn back without a photos because of bad weather, technical problems, birds that attack the drone and flight permission problems.”

Büyüktaş first experimented with collaging the drone photos by hand, but turned to Adobe Photoshop when he didn’t get the results he wanted. With this software, he was able to collage the drone photographs so that landscapes and structures bend and warp in ways that recall Christopher Nolan’s film Inception.