From German forests to the French Pyrenees, from the Rock of Gibraltar to Iceland’s tundra, artist Aaron Hobson spends endless hours traversing continents looking for eye-catching scenes. He's a digital tourist and travel photographer, grabbing images from exotic locales in Google Street View (GSV) rather than mess with planes, climbing gear, or snow shoes.
There are plenty of GSV photo projects out there, but Hobson’s heavily ‘shopped Cinemascapes are a refreshing departure from the usual documentary reality. Not only does he find the most compelling views GSV has to offer, he then mashes them up with dream-like elements to create illusory panoramas.
“GSV is a fantasy world,” says Hobson. “The locations I visit are places of fantasy for most people, myself included. Most of the images beg for a narrative or a folk tale. Storytelling is my favorite form of art.”
Hobson estimates that 95% of his time on GSV yields nothing of interest, but an accidental benefit is an increased geographical knowledge. “You could probably jettison me out of a plane over rural Brazil and I'd know where I was and how to get home on foot,” he says. Though when he does happen across something good, it's like finding a needle in a haystack.
“Patience is key. I will find an enticing destination and travel the road or roads ad nauseum,” he says. “If I'm lucky I will find the gem I am looking for along the way."
Once he’s got a shot he likes, it’s time to add some fantasy. Extensively dodging and burning with a paintbrush-like technique, Hobson works to find the contrast of light and dark that suits, then skews reality further with layers of surreal color hues. At first his post-production was restricted to just the environment — billowing black clouds have become a signature of sorts. When threatening weather stopped carrying enough drama and weirdness, Hobson began suturing images and dropping in beyond-scale elements. As a result we have the Irish coast overlooking New York City, ocean floods in Spanish side streets, and Russian Orthodox spires in tidal swells.
Hobson came to surfing GSV when he was location scouting for a movie to be directed in Los Angeles. He'd never experienced the service and a producer suggested he try it out. "I was hooked," he says. "Never even made it to LA to work on the film. I am a panoramic photographer and Street View was exactly how I see the world. It was a no brainer to check this technology out.”
Unfortuantely, having seen the advancement and consolidation of cinematic photo filters, Hobson has decided to put Cinemascapes into retirement. While his work is not purely about color and toning, he believes his methods have been reduced to a single tap.
“Instagram has taken the detailed and time-consuming skills I spent years mastering and wrapped them up into a one-button process,” Hobson reflects. “My nine-year-old can now make eerily similar images.”
All images: Aaron Hobson
It’s just about mad enough, it might be genius.
