We love a good optical illusion. And while scientists study them to discover more about how our eyes and brains work, artists continue to find ingenious ways to play with perception.
Photographer Joseph Ford specialises in creating optical illusions in which his subjects blend into their surroundings. His latest project uses a particular handcrafted medium to achieve that: invisible knitwear that camouflages the wearer.
Over several years, Joseph has been working with the textile artist Nina Dodd to create photos featuring knitted optical illusions. Nina creates 'invisible jumpers' whose patterns match the backgrounds in locations that Joseph has identified for shoots. The photographer also scouts for models to wear the knitwear, and then shoots them at a carefully staged angles so they appear to blend into the scene.
In times of AI, you might initially think the playful optical illusions were generated artificially but the detail and precision makes it clear that these are handcrafted images that involved hours of work – often weeks when you include the length of time it took from Joseph finding the location to Nina completing the knitting by hand and then Joseph finding the right moment for the shoot.
To ensure the subjects blend into the background, precision is required in the creation of the jumpers and the staging of the photo. The models aren't all human. Joseph has also photographed animals and even fruit wearing Nina's invisible jumpers to create the optical illusions.
The message behind the project revolves around a common contemporary conflict between individuality and lack thereof.
Joseph says the images are intended as a reflection on how people often see social media as a tool for self expression but end up mimicking the same trends and aesthetics that everyone is using because that's what seems to work for the algorithm. The result is that everyone ends up blending into a sea of sameness. In a similar way, Nina's jumpers require hours of dedicated craft but end up camouflaging the wearer like a chameleon.
Joseph says he often spends days wandering the streets looking for models. Sometimes the jumpers only match the location in certain weather or lighting conditions meaning that he has to wait for the right moment to take the shot.
Invisible Jumpers will be showing at The Other Art Fair in Chicago from 9 to 12 April and at Discovery Art Fair Cologne 23 to 26 April.
There's also an Invisible Jumpers book. You can see more at invisiblejumpers.com and ninadoddknits.com.
