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Photo manipulation is usually considered a method of turning a scene of reality into something imaginary. When a photograph is altered, it loses the truth of the scene being depicted. One photographer does the opposite by combining two realities into one "super reality". Thierry Cohen shows viewers what cities would look like after dark in his series, "Villes éteintes" or "Darkened Cities".


Thierry Cohen is a commercial photographer who has devoted much of his professional career to the use of digital effects in his images. His photographs have appeared in various French publications, and he has exhibited his works in Europe and in the US. His latest personal project, "Villes éteintes" or "Darkened Cities" has garnered widespread interest for the technical details that went into creating the images.

Darkened Cities is a set of photographs showing different metropolitan cities around the world darkened against a star-lit sky. These images give the impression of what New York City or Tokyo would look like in a blackout against the milky way. All of the buildings in the cities are devoid of any artificial light, making the nighttime sky light up in a view that would be impossible with all of the light pollution in the real world.


In order to capture these cities lit only by the natural light of the stars, Cohen had to travel to two different environments: populated megacities and sparse deserts. This was because Cohen had to capture the starry view not possible in the bright metropolitan cities. The photographer would first record a cityscape, and then note down the exact latitude of his location. He would then travel to a deserted landscape that shared the exact latitude as the city, point his camera at the same skyline, but this time with the aim of recording the sky. In this way, Cohen was sure that the night sky he was recording was the same one that would cover the city he recorded earlier.

Cohen traveled to the most populous cities around the world, including New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. He then traveled to largely untouched wilderness such as the Atacama Desert, the Sahara and the Mojave, all of which share the same latitude as some of these cities. The super-impositions are thus technically correct, although never realistically possible unless all of these cities and the regions around them blacked out in order for the stars to be seen as in these images.


The cities that Cohen chose were recorded during the day in order to avoid any electrical lights, and then digitally manipulated in order to darken their appearance against the night sky. The darkened cities are then set against the backdrop of the natural lights provided by the evening stars.

While the monochromatic images are beautiful, they also tell a sad story of how even the most beautiful cities pale in comparison to the natural beauty of the stars. Some of these cities, like New York and Tokyo, are famed for their neon lights and vibrant nightlife. Their beautiful artificial lights however are the very reason why the night sky cannot be seen because the artificial light drowns out the lights above them. On one hand, Cohen's nightscapes are a beautiful imagining of a reality that cannot be captured due to the circumstances of urbanization, on the other hand, they are a cautionary tale of what man stands to lose for every inch of modernization that encroaches on the natural world.


This is Thierry Cohen's website. There are more images from his "Villes éteintes" or "Darkened Cities" on the Galerie Esther Woerdehoff website, the source of all these images. For a different take of what a city might look like after dark, check out Gabriel Croppi's "Metaphysics of the Urban Landscape".

While some forms of photography have been comparable to art, one thing that has always set it apart is that everything caught on film (or sensor) is real, with many photojournalists and newspapers shunning excessive image editing. But sometimes some works of photo manipulation are just so amazing that its hard not to give praise to the artist. For instance, Erik Johansson's digital artworks are probably at the top the Internet's most awesome Photoshop manipulations.


You might have already seen some of Erik Johansson's photo manipulations as some of them have been quite popular fodder for e-mails, blogs and even Facebook posts. Johannson is a professional photographer and retoucher, but amazingly, most of his more famous manipulations are those he created in his spare time.

As a child, Johansson was more interested in drawing and sketching, and later on photography when he got his first camera as a teenager. He felt that it was a strange to begin with one art form where everything created is original and then move to another where everything created is real. When he took an interest in computers, he combined his three passions and the result is what you see here.


In order to create his impressive artworks, Johansson first takes several photographs of a scene that he likes. Some of his artworks may take several weeks to create, not because of the digital manipulation involved (which might take a few days), but because he selects different scenes to be included in only one work.

He doesn't use any stock photos, choosing to take his own photographs as he has more control of the lighting and angles. These two components are key as they help create the illusion of oneness in his images. He then finds the right areas where the individual photographs can intersect to form a seamless image.



Johansson always starts with a sketch of his first idea, but admits that the final product is always different from his initial thought, but in a good way.

With his digital manipulations, Johansson seeks to both create both the most realistic and unrealistic scene in one image. Unlike pure documentary photography where the objective is to capture moments (in the style of Henri Cartier-Bresson), Johnsson seeks to create ideas, and his Photoshop edits allow him to do just that.



More awesome Photoshop manipulations over at Erik Johansson's website. His TED Talk gives a good overview of how he creates his artworks. Be sure to check out his perspective illusions as well.