featured Connect Photography EuropeCurators’ Corner
When you’re scrambling to catch the train during rush hour, have you ever felt like you’re part of an anonymous, faceless throng, stripped of all individuality?
If the answer to the above question is yes, you will enjoy German photographer Frank Machalowski’s ‘Monsters,’ a series of long exposure photographs of moving crowds.
The project started in 2012 when Machalowski set up his camera and tripod at some of Europe’s busiest transportation hubs. Using a long duration shutter speed, Machalowski blurred moving people in his shots.
Largely dystopian in its theme and name, Machalowski intended ‘Monsters’ to illustrate the breakdown of individuals in a chaotic, claustrophobic city atmosphere. In his eerie photographs, the crowds become an endless blur, resembling a swarm of human bees.
“Sometimes I’m fascinated by these masses, but in some cases it is repulsive for me. Every characteristic of individuality disappears in a mass of people. So I looked to capture that feeling in a photographic project…I think the pictures create more negative emotions (for me).” he told Petapixel.com in a recent interview.
Machalowski is an award-winning photographer based in Berlin. Visit his website or scroll down to view images from ‘Monsters.’
