Dezeen Magazine

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

A hotel in Munich is stretched, twisted, distorted and exploded in this series of 88 manipulated photographs by Spanish photographer Victor Enrich (+ movie).

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

Victor Enrich, who also works as a 3D architectural visualiser, based the entire series of images on one view of the Deutscher Kaiser hotel, a building he passed regularly during a two-month stay in the city.

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

Some images show parts of the building turned on their sides, while others show sections of it duplicated or sliced away. Some shots show it curving into different shapes and some show it pulled it apart.

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

Describing the manipulation process, Enrich told Dezeen: "What I basically do is create a 3D virtual environment out of a 2D photograph. The process involves capturing the perspective, then the geometry, then the materials and finally the lighting."

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

"The techniques I use are often described as 'camera matching' or 'perspective matching' and several 3D software packages provide functionalities that allow you to perform this," he explained, but added that he tends to add do a lot of the work by hand to "reach the level of detail needed to achieve high photorealism".

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

"Then is just a matter of time, much time, spent working on it," he said.

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

Other images in the series include one where the top of the building is transformed into a floating orb.

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

There's also one where the tower features zigzagging walls, and another where the base of the building is missing and the tower is raised up on pilotis.

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

Enrich previously worked on a similar series of manipulated images, called City Portraits, which adapted images of other buildings in Munich as well as structures in Riga and Tel Aviv.

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

"The experiment started in 2005 and I've done several buildings, all from cities where I've stayed for periods longer than a year," he said.

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out

"If everything goes well, there will be some new works about some American cities during 2014," he added.

Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out