wrongdistance.com

One thing I think it’s very difficult for a contemporary artist to do well is create a complete space for people to interact with. Often times when I hilight a piece of photography I really like it often falls into two buckets: altered landscapes and interior spaces. I think many of my favorite photographers (Eggleston, Gursky and Esser randomly spring to mind)  succeed in giving you windows into other ways of living. The best work will be familiar enough as to be accesible but different enough to really capture your imagination.

Artificial spaces are often an embellishment on these themes of familiarity and intrigue which I tend to gravitate towards with the added bonus that people get to establish a relationship with the space. I think Paramodel (the artists responsible for the bottom picture) perhaps do this best and I encourage you to go here and look at the wonderful pictures of old men somewhat indifferently eating their dinner at a “cutlet bar” in Osaka or people relaxing in an altered spa. I like looking at how different people choose to interact with the spaces.

If the subject of articificial spaces and their relationship to their real world analouges is of even vague interest to you, you can do no worse than picking up what I consider a definitive text on the subject: Umberto Eco’s collection of essays called “Travels in Hyperreality“. It’s an absolutely fantastic read.

Picture #1 of Katrin Sigurdardottir’s High Plane V Link (Link via moon river)
Picture #2  by mom dad daughter by Tsang Kin-Wah (Link over at designboom) 
Picture #3 by Paramodel Link (via turntable lab)