Mesmerising Cloud Explosions by Ken Hermann.

You’d think photographing explosions would yield fairly aggressive results. One would expect the lens to capture chaotic and destructive images. So it comes as somewhat of a surprise that the images by young Danish photographer Ken Hermann are about as far removed from that as possible.

The ghostly clouds of smoke, the almost ethereal images he captures are mesmerising but in a mid-summer-nights-dream type of way. The Copenhagen photographer uses a balance of artificial and natural lighting to create his work and the results are dazzling to say the least.

Photographed with a studio flash strobe light, some images have been given some editing magic, but the abstract shapes of these fireworks crystalline in midair are stunning. Hermann shoots these fireworks in backgrounds that are urban, concrete and often deserted, but he also shoots them with nature framing them.

Ultimately, Herman is passionate about the fragile balance between people and their environment, between tradition and modernity. His cunning application of lighting, combining artificial with natural, takes the images into a surreal space, creating dreamlike visions that challenge the viewer to rethink ideas of everyday photographic representation.

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[Images © Ken Hermann.]