marc khachfe composes intricate nighttime images from space
(above) UK orbit
all images courtesy of marc khachfe

 

 

 

 

london-based artist marc khachfe fuses science, space, and art in his series of large-scale, map-like images composed of multiple layers of photographs and data. ‘I was blown away by the nighttime images taken of cities at night by the astronauts on the ISS (international space station) and wanted to print out a large poster of the london one for my office, but I found them too blurry and too small to look good good printed out large format’ khachfe explains. sourcing open map data, khachfe has composited the visual information with data and layered it with CGI to mimic the glow of streets and buildings. finally, photoshop merges all the layers together and play with colors, brightness and glow augment the reality of each image. the compositions expose where light from each urban scene is most prominent, for example, the famous las vegas strip radiates with an extra intensity. the artistic interpretations are geographically accurate and match the visual characteristics of the real images as closely as possible.

marc khachfe: oh my maps
las vegas

marc khachfe: oh my maps
chicago

marc khachfe: oh my maps
san francisco

marc khachfe: oh my maps
paris

marc khachfe: oh my maps
cleveland

marc khachfe: oh my maps
montreal

marc khachfe: oh my maps
london

marc khachfe: oh my maps
helsinki

marc khachfe: oh my maps
hamburg

marc khachfe: oh my maps
ft.worth texas

marc khachfe: oh my maps
rio de janiero