Ghostly Images Showcase Facades With No Buildings

French photographer Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy challenges us to think about the superficiality of facades.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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French photographer Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy has taken the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” to a whole new level. In his ongoing project “Facades,” the artist seeks to discover what the world would be like if architectural facades were completely severed from the buildings they safeguard.

“The facade is the first thing we see; it’s the surface of a building," the artist told This Is Colossal. "It can be impressive, superficial, or safe. Just like during a wandering through a foreign city, I walk through the streets with these questions: what will happen if we stick to that first vision? If the daily life of 'The Other' was only a scenery? This series thus offers a vision of an unknown world that would only be a picture, without intimate space, with looks as the only refuge.”

The eerie dissections were inspired by the fake buildings on movie sets. Intrigued by the idea that a facade could be a front for nothing, Gaudrillot-Roy took to Photoshop to bring such a world to life.

Perhaps what makes these photos so unsettling is the fact that he purposefully left remnants of human activity in each of his photos. Bikes, drying laundry, and outdoor furniture all suggest that life exists beyond the windows and doors of the threshold.

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[via ThisIsColossal]

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