20 Playful Photography Compositions Made Using Forced Perspective

Many artists and photographers use forced perspective photography to make an object or a building look farther away, closer, larger, or smaller than it actually is. In a cooler fashion, Lisbon-based photographer Hugo Suíssas uses this technique to create illusive compositions and tell playful stories.

If you -like Hugo- are interested in photography, you can contribute and tell your story through Arch2O’s Photography Challenge. After we build, the Architecture rebuilds and frames our stories. Taking a photo of a building might be easy, but telling a story through it is quite challenging!

Do you know the classic picture of a tourist holding the leaning tower of Pisa? There is more to that. If you are familiar with some architectural photography rules, you can produce your own forced perspective photography compositions. Forced perspective is one type of optical illusion; you can turn tiny objects into giant ones or shrink massive buildings.

Suíssas makes archways look like keyholes and swimming pools look like Pepsi cans! He places the right elements through specific angles and lets his mind goes wild. He uses Instagram as his main platform to share his limitless imagination with the same-minded people.

When asked about what inspires him in an interview with Bored Panda, Suíssas said that what inspires him in life as an artist is “to know that art and ideas are able to produce miracles. I believe that creativity can be magic and it can help great challenges in the world. My head doesn’t know what the word ‘stop’ means, and since the world never stops, I would say that it’s a great combination. I am a simple guy, I like simplicity and simple life.”

“When I was a kid, I did magic as a hobby and did some magic shows. For me, magic and perspective are similar in the sense that all is an illusion. I started to use perspective in my photos when I realized that it was a great technique to convey an idea and get a reaction from the public. I believe that it was my ‘magic’ childhood that inspired me to do what I do today. However, perspective is just a tool that is not always present in my work.”

Artist Uses Forced Perspective Photography to Produce Playful Images

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Photography by Hugo Suíssas

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Hugo entered the photography world about a decade ago. When Bored Panda asked him about the reason he got into photography, he said that what inspired him is knowing that one image has the power to impact and help solve serious problems in the world.

What I like the most in photography is when I have a novel idea that I haven’t seen anywhere else. What I like the least is when copycats try to copy my work, showing a great deal of lack of respect for others and for the artist community.”

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Hugo says he’s never studied photography anywhere and he got into it through a friend and the Instagram community. He is very happy to be a part of this and isn’t planning to stop. Hugo explained that he really likes ideas, especially original ones. He says that he doesn’t really have a style, but works more with intentions.

“I am what you may call an obsessive artist, in the sense that I won’t stop until I materialize in a photo what is in my head. It’s a great deal of hard work. Every day I sit at my desk with white paper and pen and I exercise my brain, trying to have meaningful ideas and interesting projects. What made me get here is my almost uncontrollable desire to create things that haven’t been done before on this planet, or any other in the galaxy. This is what gets me going,” said Hugo when asked to tell us more about himself.

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“Initially, I would just improvise without thinking too much about the final result. Nowadays, as this is practically my profession, I spend more time in the thinking process of making a photo. I plan every pixel, nothing is there by chance.”