Manuel Plantin, also known as Yodamanu, is a street photograph that manages to capture a glimpse of urban life with his camera. He works in the streets of Strasbourg (mostly), a French town near the German border, and has a series of photos based on reflections.
Have you ever been amazed by the way some things are more beautiful when you don’t look at them directly, or see them through a prism of some sort? I have, but I find beauty in everything – especially in water reflections, because they show you a darker world full of shadowy figures, where you don’t need to see every detail to find perfection, and where every silhouette could represent an alternate reality.
These pictures were taken after rainy days in Strasbourg, and they show you the upside down world of reflections. What fascinates me in these images, amongst other things, is the power of lights – whether they’re traffic lights, neon lights or just lamp posts; they are so much brighter in their reflection, and they drag us like moths to flames. In this kind of world, every imperfection on the concrete can be seen as a falling star, every leaf on the ground is a nebula and every sparkle is a sun. Stare at them and let your imagination flow into whatever reality you find comfortable living in. You are obviously encouraged to look at the rest of his work on his website.
While looking at those photos, I recalled this amazing music video by The Rodeo Idiot Engine that employed the same way to look at things. I don’t know if Greg Orio (the director of the music video) took inspiration in Yodamanu’s work, but I’m loving this so much that I wanted to show some kind of animated version of these pictures.
