Monstro the giant red alien is having a better summer holiday than you

The work of Nicolas Demeersman, aka Jolipunk, is one that makes you smile although it probably shouldn’t. The French photographer’s newest series Monstro uses the comical to highlight society’s need to constantly document our travels, displaying how absurd this may seem to the audience back home.

Jolipunk is best known for his series, Fucking Tourist which conveyed a local’s perspective of tourism. This new series runs along a similar theme, but uses a lighthearted giant red alien to drill home the idea a little further. Monstro, the alien, is a bit of a dimwitted character, the gap-year but lovable type who we all recognise from our Facebook feeds. Monstro has visited waterparks, tourist attractions, and done a few odd jobs to keep the travelling dream alive. Together, the pair appear to have travelled to every corner of the earth, from Albania to Tanzania, in these witty snapshots that are also stunningly shot.

Although this series has a moral objective, it’s also so enjoyable and raises questions with the viewer, a rarity in photography today. It makes you ask how and why he decided to do this, and creates intrigue. However unnatural it may seem, Jolipunk does display how insane our world must seem to an outsider, “a picture series in the way of postcards of earth; and what if, deep down, mankind are nothing more than aliens ourselves.”