'vacant' by photographer brad walls explores retrofuturism

testing new scenes in ‘vacant’ series by brad walls

Award-winning Australian Photographer Brad Walls has released a new retrofuturistic series titled ‘Vacant’. Drawing inspiration from his fascination with surrealism and geometric art, his second conceptual artwork invites the audience to experience more sceneries from above.

Captured by a drone, the photo series is set inside a 20 sqm squash court with identically-styled models engaging in choreographed poses of duplicity and symmetry. ‘As an artist, you are trying to push your work to the next level, finding the new scenes, testing the limits. A 20 square-meter box using a drone was the next challenge. I was bound to crash,‘ shares Walls.

a futuro wardrobe modeled against an 80s-style squash court

For ‘Vacant’, Brad Walls (see more here) set out to create a pure, clinical, and retrofuturistic theme using white and pops of red. As he states: ‘To combat the claustrophobic nature of a squash court, I filled the space with as much white as possible, including the models’ wardrobe to avoid the scenes becoming too ‘boxed in’. The futuro wardrobe is used to contrast against the 80’s retro nature of the squash court. I’ve always enjoyed Retrofuturism; the tension between the future and the past is intriguing. Movies like Gattaca, Blade Runner, and Beyond the Black Rainbow have been pivotal in my understanding of the genre.’

Like other series, Walls employs a similar choreographic style, opting for mid-movement static poses: ‘The movement direction is intended to be artificially detached from the environment. They tell a story, but I don’t want to give the whole story away – I like the idea of seduction within my work.’

celebrating geometry with duplicity, symmetry, + negative space

Duplicity, symmetry of figures, and negative space are seen throughout the series – trademark compositing techniques characteristic of Walls’ greater body of work. He uses such methods to carry out his vision of subtle geometry: ‘Geometry provides a hint at consistency in an ever inconsistent world. Innately, humans are drawn to it. Me, maybe more so.’

The artist has his maiden book publishing in the fall (October) named ‘Pools from Above’. It can be pre-ordered from all major bookstores worldwide today.

project info:

name: Vacant
photography: Brad Walls

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lea zeitoun | designboom