Joseph Ford plays with perspective in latest editorial for Avaunt

Brighton-based landscape and aerial art photographer Joseph Ford has completed a trompe l’oeil for Avaunt Magazine. Titled Anamorphosis, this project uses the lines of a tennis court distorted and overplayed onto an abandoned swimming pool that can only be read from a certain perspective. “Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point to view the image correctly,” says Joseph. The series created for the publication has the feel of a game played at length rather than simply one clever image.

The main image, which displays the anamorphic view in full is one of the most effective produced in the project. The two players squaring up at far sides of the gaffer tape tennis court drives home the size and accomplishment of the anamorphic space, successfully coercing the viewer to read the physical world falsely, and the imagined perspective as intended.

Parkour artists Kevin Francomme and David Banks occupy the camera’s field; it is only in the shooting of figures in action, living and breathing the space of distortion, that the photographs are brought dynamically to life. Though their presence high up and low in the main image solidifies the perspective, some of the most interesting examples of their work are seem in close up, scaling, running and twisting along the walls to further challenge the viewer’s expectation and understanding of space.

Accompanying the images is the tagline, “2.5 kilometres of blue gaffer tape, seven assistants, two anamorphosis artists, two parkour artists and one derelict swimming pool in Glasgow.” A true collaboration, the project was realised with a team of anamorphosis artists and assistants coordinated by Papy and Milouz from TSF Crew.

Joseph also recently completed and collated a series of diptychs pairing aerial landscape photography with fashion products for Avaunt Magazine, demonstrating a keen eye for perspective and challenging the way in which the world is viewed.