(Pocket-lint) – In a series of photographs called “Flatland”, Turkish artist and photo manipulator Aydın Büyüktaş uses a collection of aerial photographs to create these images which give a new perspective to the world.
Aydın Büyüktaş says that he got the initial inspiration for this style of photography from the book “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” by Edwin Abbott which explores the interconnecting of dimensions and transition between them from a geometry standpoint.
Taking the thought-provoking ideas from the book, Büyüktaş set about creating a series of photographs to visually represent these concepts.
In 2017, Büyüktaş began the painstaking process of planning out his trip. It took two months to find the perfect spots to create the images he envisioned. Using Google Earth he scoured the United States picking a variety of spots that in the end would cover 45 shooting locations and an astounding 10,000 miles.
Shooting the photos took around a month and a lot of travelling across Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico. Each of the images you see in this collection is actually a combination of around 18 to 20 drone photographs carefully stitched together to create a curved collage of the landscape.
Wanderland
This image comes from Tucson Arizona and was produced using Google Earth Studio. Using Google’s imagery to create this sort of art from an airfield of abandoned aircraft is certainly an interesting use case and one with some pretty cool results too.
Red hills on the road
No doubt taken on one of his many road trips across the States to take these photos, this image captures the iconically classic American highway stretching off into the distance. The classic long and straight American road now has a vertigo-inducing curve to it that complements the surrounding hillsides.
Junkyard
As far as the eye can see a graveyard of ageing cars stretches off in every direction. This photo gives the impression of a gravity defying world where the cars refuse to budge despite being on an incline that would make them fall, bump and crash into each other.
Harvest time
This image captures a farmer in the middle of his harvest and gives a nod to the vastness of the American landscape with arable land available in masses outside the massive Cities.
Abandoned works
Sadly, not all of Aydin’s images made it in the Flatland 2 series. Even the ones that didn’t are impressive though and conjure up images of another world. In this one, a train appears to be defying gravity as it stretches off into the distance, more carriages than you can easily count, curving off into space.
Interstate
The World’s largest rollercoaster would have some stiff competition if this road really sloped off at this angle. Billboards stretch off skywards bombarding motorists with adverts to distract them from the boredom of the long commute onwards and upwards.
Empty car park
We can only dream of finding a car park this empty. Park your car anywhere you like, just do so at your own risk and be sure to put your handbrake on.
Farm in desert
Back from the ultra-urban to the extremities of rural America. Another lone farmhouse sits at the end of a long desert road.
Farm and interstate
Here rural and urban collide as a massive interstate road cuts through peaceful farmland.
Farm with bales
Is this the American dream? A large farmhouse at the end of a private road surrounded by idyllic farmland as far as the eye can see. We’re not sure we’d want our house at this gradient though.
Train yard
Thousands of train carriages sit idly in this enormous trainyard. A mass of industry prepped and ready to deliver goods at a moments notice.
Desert railroad
Striking colours and a wonderful sunset helps throw a magnificent shadow on these train carriages as they roll off into the beyond. We’d hate to see the speed a runaway train would gather on these rails.
Red road
The heat of the desert perfectly represented in a single image. Dry and desolate land surrounds a tarmac road cracked and burnt by the neverending sun. A solitary car races down the road towards us, we hope his brakes are good.
American football field
We’d imagine a game of American football would be far more challenging with this sort of incline on the field and would certainly work in one team’s favour.
Abandoned greenhouse
Broken dreams and wasted land, this collage of an abandoned Greenhouse is as mesmerising as it is sad. What’s the story behind this empty grow house?
Bridge
A bridge over the Colorado River curves off into the distance. In any other photograph, you might be forgiven for thinking the bridge was simply raising up to give way to river-borne traffic.
Cow farm
In this topsy-turvy world, we’d imagine cow tipping would quickly become cow rolling. In fact, we’re impressed to see these bovine creatures managing to remain upright in the first place.
Another testament to the sheer scale and might of American agriculture. This image captures hundreds of cows grazing and milling about wondering what the buzzing noise from the drone could be.
Cemetery
With these photographs, Aydın Büyüktaş manages to give us a new perspective on the world. Here an otherwise sad reminder of mortality somehow manages to appear beautiful and mystifying.
Baseball field
Jaunty angles of a baseball field in a perspective you’re never likely to see in real life. We’d like to see how pitchers performed at this gradient.
Nursery
With each collage, the artist seemingly captures the different aspects of the American way of life – agriculture, industry, commerce and travel. Here thousands of plants stretch off into the distance breathing life-giving oxygen into the twisted dimension they inhabit.
Quarry
With aerial photographs of this Quarry, Aydın Büyüktaş conjures images of a giant machine of industry, unrelenting in its quest for minerals and materials for the furtherance of mankind.
Waterways
It’s not just cars, trains and machinery that defies gravity in these photos it’s water and boats too. This wonderfully surreal image plays tricks on the eyes like the other and results in a magnificent view of the area.
Envisioning Cityscapes Vitra
Other than the unusual curve on perspective, these images offer, another thing they have going for them is the sheer variety of the photographed landscapes. One moment a road, next a river, then a train track. Here some ancient human structures are seemingly crumbling down before our very eyes.
Bolted down
We like this one, not just because it looks fantastic like all the rest, but because it also looks like the land is being held in place and defying the pull of gravity with a butterfly bolt screwed down in place in the foreground.
Parallel Universes
A break from Flatland comes in the form of another series of Aydın Büyüktaş’ photos. Known as Parallel Universes 2, these images create a wonderful inception-like vision of our world. Here it looks like a tall skyscraper is holding the sky up and there’s a world up there, just out of reach.
Writing by Adrian Willings.
