A wide, curved tunnel lined with bright orange tiles. A long, narrow strip of white light runs along the ceiling, leading the eye toward a series of dark pillars in the distance.

Underground sci-fi visuals courtesy of the brilliant Nick Frank

Words: James Cartwright
—
Date: 20 March 2013; Work
Photography

Despite first appearances, what you’re looking at here isn’t the set of a big-budget sci-fi extravaganza, or a digital rendering of a future city; its origins are more modest than that. These fluorescent tunnels and geometric textures in fact belong to the winding depths of Munich’s U-Bahn (that’s the Underground, Subway or Metro to any non-German speakers out there) as catalogued by photographer Nick Frank. With a keen eye, some expensive equipment and a little bit of digital wizardry, Nick has transformed the otherwise tawdry and inhospitable environments of underground transport into an altogether more exciting affair that glistens invitingly – without the physical minefield of 10,000 frantic commuters.