The real cardboard cities: Incredible life-like street scenes made from boxes and brown paper

By JILL REILLY

New York: At first glance these incredible images appear to show darkly-lit cities across the world, photographed with a brown tint At first glance these incredible images appear to show darkly-lit cities across the world, photographed with a brown tint. But a closer inspection reveals they are actually mini street scenes made almost entirely from cardboard and brown paper sheets. The moody life-like dioramas showing buildings in London, New York, Mumbai, Paris and Tokyo were created by photographer Andy Rudak.

Mumbai: But a closer inspection reveals they are actually mini street scenes made almost entirely from cardboard and brown paper sheets

Paris: Advertising photographer Andy Rudak used his own funds to pay for the work

Tokyo: Each city took round a month to make from design state to finish

London: From design stage to construction each city took about a month to create At around half-scale the pieces were constructed for a series dubbed ‘Cardboard Cities’. Each cost around £5,000 to make including materials and paying a team to assemble the constructions. Advertising photographer Mr Rudak used his own funds to pay for the project which was based in his East London studio. From the design stage to the last cardboard piece, each city took around a month each to make.

Shrunk: At around half-scale the pieces are the creation of artist and photographer Andy Rudak for a series dubbed Cardboard Cities

Work of art: The moody amazingly life-like dioramas show buildings in London, New York, Mumbai, Paris and Tokyo

Revealed: But on closer inspection the photos reveal they are actually mini street scenes made almost entirely from cardboard Mr Rudak, 38, who is originally from Devon, but now lives in London, usually makes a living doing iant billboard adverts for the likes of global companies like HSBC. Mr Rudak said: 'I work in a creative industry which is all about ideas and the process of conveying a whole story in a single image. 'The inspiration for a lot these pieces is really when I am daydreaming, I live near Brick Lane in East London and there is a sense of a lot of people living on top of each other.

Painstaking work: Each construction has been carefully designed to resemble each city

Creative: At around half-scale the pieces are the creation of artist and photographer Andy Rudak for a series dubbed Cardboard Cities 'The cardboard scenes are around half size, about 12 foot high by 14 foot across. 'The scenes are made from cardboard packaging, brown paper sheets with a wooden frame to stop them going floppy.' Mr Rudak and his team - including set builder Luke Aan de Wiel - have now produced a book of their project and he has not ruled out trying something even more ambitious. He said: 'I knew I wanted the shots to portray a scene of serenity.

Hard work: The team get creative in Mr Rudak's studio off London's Brick Lane

Glue and stick: Cardboard tubes were attached to the sloping roofs during the project

Ideas: 'I was drawn to the idea of the taxidermy animals, which were all sourced thanks to the help of London Taxidermy,' said Mr Rudak

Bare: The shell of one of the constructions

Creative direction: 'I had decided I wanted these scenarios to be void of any obvious human presence so I used an animal for each shot as the main focal point,' said Mr Rudak

Realism: The card is scored to look like brickwork 'I had decided I wanted these scenarios to be void of any obvious human presence so I used an animal for each shot as the main focal point. 'From this I was drawn to the idea of the taxidermy animals, which were all sourced thanks to the help of London Taxidermy. 'I had to adapt my requests as it is illegal to have some of animals - for the Mumbai scene I wanted an otter but you’re not allowed those.' One of the scene has been bought by an advertising agency - and the rest will be broken up and recycled. source: dailymail

The real cardboard cities: Incredible life-like street scenes made from boxes and brown paper 2012-10-29T23:54:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Bona Pasogit