A Manchester-based photographer spends hours in the studio bringing you well-known cities -- but as you've never seen them before.
[partner id="wireduk"]When Andrew Brooks learned the skills needed to manouvre the high-end post-production equipment used in advertising photography, his creativity and eye for detail lead him to completely new worlds.
These panoramic and mystical images have been created from hundreds, and in some cases, thousands, of detailed photographs of urban scenes that have been meticulously spliced together. Speaking to Wired.co.uk, Brooks explained his work process: "They are all composite images, made of at least 40, if not hundreds of, individual photos. I don't try to capture the image in one go, but prefer to gain as much detail as possible and then piece it together in Photoshop and post-production."
Brooks insists that, despite the amount of images he processes, his is not a mathematical process and boycotts the tripod when he's out shooting: "It's not about having the camera in one position. I shot the image of Pudong from ten different points in the tower. Afterwards, I build it how I want."
This "jigsawing" of multiple shots often produces staggering results. But sometimes a stunning view alone is inspiration enough: "I know when I'm in front of a view that's really interesting," says Brooks. "In these cases, I need to catch as much information as possible and then try to go back and try to define what it was that made that scene interesting; whether it was the detail or the light, for example."
Detail is still incredibly important to Brooks, despite the huge area his photographs cover, and he encourages viewers to explore the hi-res images of downtown New York and the fantasy scene of Sealand on his website. The latter image is made up of pictures of a pier in Holland, oil refineries and industry in Liverpool and tower blocks in Manchester and explores the story behind Sealand, a fort off the Essex coast which has been deemed its own country. Similarly, while the New York image may seem familiar, Brooks has worked his magic on some major landmarks. "You hardly ever see a picture where you can capture the real geography of Manhattan," he explains, "but as I put it together I made downtown 30 percent larger than it is in real life and increased the size of the Statue of Liberty by 50 percent."
Although he arguably makes it look rather different, the world's scenery remains Brooks' inspiration: "I love using my photography as a way of travelling. It's almost a framework for how I see the world."
Next on his list are the Aura Borealis and underwater shots of coral reefs.
