at first glance one might be fooled by looking at the work of Ruud van Empel, but you quickly realise that you’re not faced with reality… is it photo? a painting? neither, really. the Dutch artist creates photorealistic digital montages by combining hundreds of his own images. Van Empel tried his hand at painting, but did not possess ‘the craftmanship to create realistic painting’ – which is what lead him to digital photographic manipulation.

Ruud van Empel creates striking large-format photomontages – collages of hundreds of photographs, combined to form one photorealistic image. The process takes many weeks and originates with a single idea. Van Empel first takes photographs of models and various settings, then merges them with images from a large database of pictures he has compiled over time, gradually developing a single image. The resulting picture is extremely high resolution, allowing him to obtain large-format prints of extraordinary quality and detail. – Collect Contemporary Photography

he “constructs worlds that cannot exist in reality, but are so sharply focused that we are immediately drawn into them“ * …i really love his World series, which has been ongoing since 2005.  what i would give to see one in person! (or have a piece grace my walls)