Gallery: These Surreal Photo Collages Are Actually Ingenious Time-Lapse Portraits
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In Berlin-based artist Michel Lamoller's series *Tautochronos* he layers several hand-cut photos on top of each other.
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Lamoller takes up to ten photographs in one location, while the subject changes appearance.
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Then, with a scalpel knife, Lamoller carves out pieces of the photos, and stacks them together. Here, the edges around the model show that his nude photo is at the bottom of the stack. Each successive photo shows a hint of one more item of clothing.
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It's almost like having X-ray vision.
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Some collages blend the subject into their environment, like this image that uses bark-shaped pieces to camouflage a woman into a tree.
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Because the model is wearing a green t-shirt, this one is particularly surreal.
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In some others, the time of day can be seen when lighter frames get layered next to dimmer ones. Here, some of the tiles look sunlit, while others are in the shadows.
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Here, Lamoller blends denim and orange fleece into both the park bench and stone pathway underneath the subject.
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The gridded pattern shows the setting when it's inhabited, and when it's empty.
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Lamoller always looks to carve out portions of the picture that will yield what he calls, “the most surreal experience.”
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*Tautochronos* evolved from an earlier series called *Layerscapes*, that applies the same technique to landscapes and cityscapes. Lamoller uses that here, and plays up the contrast between sitting indoors at a desk, while an entire city sits in the background.
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This series is more intimate, in part because it features Lamoller's friends, sometimes in their own homes. This is an eight-layer piece that collapses the seconds in which a woman sheds layers of clothing.
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Here, in a visual double entendre, Lamoller creates a camouflage just out of layered shirts and the subject's skin underneath.
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*Tautochronos* (Greek for “at the same time”) is an ongoing series.
