NEW YORK – Award-winning Australian photographer Brad Walls, who now resides in New York, has released a new series titled Vacant. Drawing inspiration from his fascination with surrealism and geometric art, audiences are invited to experience his second conceptual art series from above.
Walls, widely known for his “Pools From Above” series, first set his sights on creating “Vacant” after visiting a squash court he used to play at in high school. Intrigued by the vast empty space and the linework of the court, he saw its artistic potential. He explains: “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.”
In creating “Vacant,” Walls says he set out to create a pure, clinical retrofuturistic theme, using white and pops of red: “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 1980s retro nature of the squash court. “I’ve always enjoyed Retrofuturism, the tension between the future and the past is intriguing,” Walls says, adding, “Movies like Gattaca, Blade Runner and Beyond the Black Rainbow have been pivotal in my understanding of the genre.”
Walls employs a similar choreographic style to that of his previous series, opting for mid-movement static poses. He gave insight into this choice, saying: “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.”
Duplicity, symmetry of figures and negative space is seen throughout the Vacant series in trademark compositing techniques that can be observed throughout Walls’s greater body of work. He uses such techniques to carry out his vision of geometry, stating: “Geometry provides a hint at consistency in an ever inconsistent world. Innately, humans are drawn to it. Me, maybe more so.”
Walls will publish his first book in October. Titled Pools from Above, it is available for pre-order from most leading bookstores.
To learn more about Brad Walls and his fine art aerial photography, visit www.bradscanvas.com and the Instagram account @bradscanvas.
Click to view articles about Brad Walls’ previous photographic series:
