hüseyin şahin's digital dreamscapes conjure otherworldly atmospheres

when looking at istanbul-based artist hüseyin şahin’s creative photo-manipulations, viewers are transported to an otherworldly scene where reality and fantasy become one. şahin blends multiple contrasting images to create surreal scenes that could only be conjured in a dream. ‘I am fueled by dreams, visions and contrasts,’ he tells designboom. ‘what-if questions direct my imagination, but my starting points are nature and life itself.’

şahin’s compositions take anywhere between 3 hours to 3 days and are carefully crafted from a range of visual sources. nature meets architecture, and humans meet landscapes in completely abstract and absurd ways that defy the laws of the natural world. cityscapes become flooded yet familiar landmarks, desert dunes meet ocean waves, and animals exist in places where they never have before. ‘the hardest part of creating an image is to decide on the concept itself — in other words to picture it,’ şahin describes. ‘the rest is not that challenging when you have the right materials and know-how. once I have decided on the materials that I will use, only thing left to do is to start technically and direct my imagination.’