Ambient New York street photos with the backgrounds removed

Date
6 November 2014

The city being a lonely place is a constant source of inspiration to young creatives, sometimes to the point at which I think if I hear one more person refer to London or New York as a “concrete jungle” I’ll punch them in the face. In amongst the enormous swamp of projects that deal with this subject matter, there are some rare, beautiful orchids. Isolated by Fernando Vallejo is one of these. Fernando’s been prowling the streets of The Big Apple for a while now, snapping passers-by as they rush around the city like ants late for jury duty.

His portraits are serene moments: women blinking sleepily, or a perspiring young man squinting into the sun. The magic happens when Fernando decides to erase the busy, congested background and replace it with pure black. This gives the effect that his anonymous subjects are trapped in some sort of parallel universe, and the light hitting their face without being distracted by the background is reminiscent of an Old Masters painting or the work of photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Beautiful.

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Fernando Vallejo: Isolated

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Fernando Vallejo: Isolated

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Fernando Vallejo: Isolated

Above

Fernando Vallejo: Isolated

Above

Fernando Vallejo: Isolated

Above

Fernando Vallejo: Isolated

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About the Author

Liv Siddall

Liv joined It’s Nice That as an intern in 2011 and worked across online, print and events, and was latterly Features Editor before leaving in May 2015.

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