Geert after dark

Some fantastic new work here from our conceptual photographer, the fantastic Geert De Taeye.

Created by manipulating Google Street View images of Hong Kong, here’s what Geert has to say about the shots -

After Dark 

The working title stands for the fact that Google Street View images are always shot in daytime, which makes sense, since they are more used for informative purposes then they are shot for esthetic reasons.

As a photographer I scan the Google Earth map like a spy plane, looking for interesting areas before I strike down and zoom into the streets. Virtually traveling to a place where I never was before. I look for the aesthetics in the images during my endless walks. The will to get lost and discover.

I select and I frame, as I would do in reality. We can argue that it’s not really the photographers skill that is needed, but the study gets really close I think.

Google Street View never sleeps. The sun never sets. You will never see the lights of a city after dark. A delirium of sleeplessness. In this case I chose Hong Kong as a city that never sleeps. 

To counter the sleeplessness of this adventurous tool I transformed the Images, screenshots made on my computer, into night time images. 

I look for empty streets while I switch on streetlights and create the mysterious feel that the night provides us. I manipulated time.

The images made by the Google Street View car capture a moment in time, exactly what a photograph does. Changing the landscape overtime, waiting for the next Google car to pass by.