Kaleidoscope
To present the appearance of a brightly coloured and constantly changing pattern; to cause to come together or coalesce with pleasing results.
(OED, Kaleidoscope v.)
I love repeating patterns and geometric lines — it is probably why architectural photography interests me so much. Lines converging and diverging, crisp against the soft sky, standing out prominently as a feat of man-made engineering. The perfectly straight lines often found in architecture contrast so well with the randomness and wonderful imperfection of nature.
Buildings are the perfect subject for creating kaleidoscopic images due to their repeating forms. When I visited New York in 2018, I didn’t initially take these photographs with the intention of creating kaleidoscopic images, but to capture the exuberance and scale of the towering city.
Arriving at JFK airport, we took the train directly to Penn Station in the heart of Manhattan. As I walked outside, my head craned up to a vertical position as I tried to find where the skyscrapers ended and the sky began. I was amazed by the sheer size of these buildings; they dominated the skyline, almost covering the sky above completely. I had brought my manual focus, 14mm wide-angle lens expecting large buildings, but even that would not be enough to get entire structures in a single frame.
It was then that I decided to capture the overwhelming feeling that visiting New York presented. Throughout the trip, I was always photographing up. It was impossible to get far away enough to fit everything in frame, so a sense of claustrophobia is felt in many of my snapshots.
When I returned home, I began editing my photos and I played around with the idea of reflections. Beginning with the image above, I opened up photoshop and duplicated it. Then I flipped it horizontally and spliced the two layers together. I merged them, duplicated the merged image and flipped that vertically. All put together, it created a completely different perspective on the average worms-eye view photograph that pictured a row of similar repeating buildings.
Now, it was something alien. Floating structures that look similar to PCs occupying the smoothly blended sky, framed by four windowed walls in the corners. The negative space is almost as engaging as the structures, as it allows the eyes to rest from the overstimulating details presented in the buildings.
To create the kaleidoscope image at the top of the page, the image was just duplicated four more times and arranged together. The focal point of the image changed once again, now drawing attention to the four rhombus-shaped constructions that dominate their respective corners.
Years later, I visited Milan and once again brought my camera to explore what Italy had to offer in terms of architecture and landscape. I was obligated to photograph the Duomo di Milano (Milan cathedral) and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, being a tourist, but there was one photograph that I thought would work well in this kaleidoscope format (below).
The very uniform, parallel row of houses that exuberate an autumnal atmosphere seem to never end as they stretch across the frame. The bell tower(s) remind me of factory chimney stacks as they extend towards each other, destined to be forever apart as they run parallel.
A common feature for photographs to work in this format is having a clean outline between building and sky. The sky also has to be smooth and uninterrupted for the images to be stitched together seamlessly in the kaleidoscope. This is what makes it feel like a complete and unique image as opposed to several images duplicated and stuck together.
Back to New York, these last two images present a more traditonal, uniformed pattern. Lacking the distinction between building and background, they zoom in on the repeating patterns that are found on the windowed walls of skyscrapers.
I like the bleak colour of this first one; its desaturated appearance reflects the monotony of offices and work. It is more abstract than the others and is subject to the phenomenon of pareidolia: ‘the perception of recognisable patterns or images, in random or vague arrangements of shapes, lines, colours, etc.’ (OED Pareidolia n.)
This second image is very aesthetic in its contrasting colours and, like the previous one, is very uniform in its repeating arrangement. The colours do most of the heavy lifting with this image to make it visually interesting but I think it has its own appeal.
This technique is very versatile and often requires trial-and-error with many photographs to see whether they are effective in a kaleidoscopic form. It is not something I have on my mind when photographing, but when I return to edit, I am always on the lookout for those few images that may be successful in creating interesting patterns and structures. If you like the effect, just give it a go. It requires very little skill on photoshop and can sometimes transform a boring photograph into an intriguing design that can seem otherworldly.
All photographs and images are my own.
