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Portrait images
“The Uncanny Valley,” a phrase coined by Masahiro Mori, suggests that human replicas that appear almost, but not exactly, like real human beings elicit eeriness and feelings of revulsion among observers. This exhibition of uncanny portraits of wax figures taken at Madame Tussauds museums in Las Vegas and Washington, DC invites viewers to test Mori’s theory. Depicting some of the most famous celebrities and recognizable people in the world, these wax figures are renowned for their likeness to the original subjects. As cultural artifacts, they represent a yearning to physically interact with even the verisimilitude of celebrity. The act of photography causes the Tussauds wax sculptures to appear more real than they do in the museum. This con is achieved by removing the sculpture’s failure of “liveness,” expected by the viewer when interacting with the three-dimensional form, and returning the copy to the more familiar mode of celebrity consumption used in popular culture and advertising. The resulting images in this exhibition are intended to confront issues of simulation and hyper-reality.
Since its inception, Lusztyk’s Interchanges project has taken the artist all over the world in search of a very particular subject: the architectural necessity of city sprawl that takes shape in the web-like intersections of the highway interchange. Lusztyk’s aerial views and uncanny angles transform otherwise functional, banal constructions into photographic spaces for aesthetic meditation: long, linear shadows present a doubling of sensual, concrete curvatures; the static symmetry of the structure poetically contrasts its witness to perpetual movement; conspicuous green space is carved out in perfect geometry, so that the organic and the inanimate mathematically coexist. For Lusztyk, these images reveal with new perspective a ubiquitous presence that nonetheless remains largely invisible. His vision of capturing the satisfying beauty of highways infuses the familiar with something new; it is the everyday at a remove, one that allows a privileged glimpse of the veins and arteries of both cities and the sinews that connect them.
Assorted commissioned photography projects.
Assorted still life images from personal and client work.
Assorted location photography from around the world.
In Point Blank, Lusztyk’s magnification of handguns at once anthropomorphizes and abstracts its subject to create demystified portraits of an infamous machine. High-resolution images are made up of many separate shots, stitched together in post-production to maximize detail at such a large scale. Presented with the “impossible perspective” of looking down a gun’s barrel—however unnerving—viewers are also offered a rare opportunity to study the imperfections of a cultural object both fetishized and feared. These flawed, monolithic studies of Point Blank are born of curiosity rather than a desire to glorify danger, while supporting the many possible and conflicting readings the subject elicits. Indeed, the series recalls the dramatic firearm character studies Robert Longo’s Body Hammers (1993), but also the industrial typology of Bernd and HIlla Becher’s 1970s architectural grid series. What each project shares in is the power for the photographic medium to lend new aesthetic potential to its subjects—the recognition of the degree to which scale, detail, and context precariously mark the borders between meanings. Point Blank has been exhibited in Canada, US, UK, Switzerland, and France. Work from the series was featured in Bruce MacDonald’s 2013 film The Husband and the Netflix series Hemlock Grove. Work from the series has been published in publications including Wired, The Atlantic, Daily Mail, Le Monde, and Esquire.
Print campaign for Tusch Seating International
These are portraits of the people and animals of The Royal Winter Fair. The event takes place every November in Toronto. It is the largest agricultural fair in the world.
Assorted commissioned photography projects.
Photoshoot for Castor Design’s lighting line “Grey & Unremarkable”
Print Campaign for Hamilton Watch Company. Hamilton created a limited edition watch for the Canadian Forces 431 Air Demonstration Squadron aka The Snowbirds.
Print campaign images for Nienkamper International furniture company.
In Kenya, rape crimes often go unreported because they are committed by those closest to the victims: their fathers, grandfathers, neighbours, etc. The “160 Girls” project aims to put an end to this. On May 27, 2013, it won a landmark victory against the Kenyan government and ordered police to properly enforce defilement laws. To raise awareness, we created a campaign to show how Kenya’s young girls no longer have to live in fear.
Furniture photography for Mjolk Shop Toronto.
Lusztyk’s “Collectible” series is a macro level exploration of coins, bills and stamps. These images are created with the intention of being reproduced on a very large scale giving the viewer the opportunity to gaze at these tiny artifacts from an unfamiliar perspective. The images point to our sense of nostalgia and our desire to organize and worship the things that we covet.
This pro-bono campaign, developed by DDB Canada's Toronto office, and photographed by Peter Andrew Lusztyk aims to rally support for struggling single mothers and WoodGreen's Homeward Bound program. Unique in Canada, this award-winning program helps homeless or inadequately-housed single mothers earn a tuition-paid college diploma, start a career and achieve economic self-sufficiency." Our creative is a parody of popular celebrity media culture, but instead of celebrity-focused stories, it features hard-hitting headlines about struggling single mothers and the real hardships they face each day," says Denise Rossetto, executive creative director, DDB Canada. "Learning about celebrities is fun, but we want people to recognize that there are many others who are in greater need of our attention and support."
The campaign included television, print, out of home, social and online advertising to drive traffic to WoodGreen's website.
Album art for MSTRKFT
Outdoor advertising has proven to be a divisive issue in the City of Toronto. As of October 2016 the city has issued a ban on several types of “out of home” advertising placements. This resulted in dozens of uninhabited, large-scale glass advertising frames left hanging around the city. I used this opportunity to stage an open-air exhibition of my Uncanny Valley Portrait Series.
Last year, Madame Tussauds Las Vegas, granted me permission to shoot their wax exhibits in a studio setting. It was an attempt to photograph the sculptures to appear as realistic as possible. This was an experiment intended to test the uncanny valley theory.
In aesthetics, the uncanny valley is the hypothesis that human replicas that appear almost but not exactly like real human beings elicits feelings of eeriness and revulsion among some observers.
By injecting my images of the wax sculptures into the public sphere in high visibility zones that are traditionally reserved for advertising, I am hoping to force observers to interact with the images and draw their own conclusions.
Interior photography for Hannam Fertility.
Print campaign for Toronto design studio Castor. Created for the launch of a set of accessories for marijuana users that resembles a vintage candy dish, ahead of Canada's legalization of the drug.
The Heirloom Stack collection is designed to look like the antique crystal vessels sometimes found in elderly people's homes. Castor Design sought to create familiar objects that avoid the typical look of marijuana accessories.
In Point Blank, Lusztyk’s magnification of handguns at once anthropomorphizes and abstracts its subject to create demystified portraits of an infamous machine. High-resolution images are made up of many separate shots, stitched together in post-production to maximize detail at such a large scale. Presented with the “impossible perspective” of looking down a gun’s barrel—however unnerving—viewers are also offered a rare opportunity to study the imperfections of a cultural object both fetishized and feared. These flawed, monolithic studies of Point Blank are born of curiosity rather than a desire to glorify danger, while supporting the many possible and conflicting readings the subject elicits. Indeed, the series recalls the dramatic firearm character studies Robert Longo’s Body Hammers (1993), but also the industrial typology of Bernd and HIlla Becher’s 1970s architectural grid series. What each project shares in is the power for the photographic medium to lend new aesthetic potential to its subjects—the recognition of the degree to which scale, detail, and context precariously mark the borders between meanings. Point Blank has been exhibited in Canada, US, UK, Switzerland, and France. Work from the series was featured in Bruce MacDonald’s 2013 film The Husband and the Netflix series Hemlock Grove. Work from the series has been published in publications including Wired, The Atlantic, Daily Mail, Le Monde, and Esquire.
Since its inception, Lusztyk’s Interchanges project has taken the artist all over the world in search of a very particular subject: the architectural necessity of city sprawl that takes shape in the web-like intersections of the highway interchange. Lusztyk’s aerial views and uncanny angles transform otherwise functional, banal constructions into photographic spaces for aesthetic meditation: long, linear shadows present a doubling of sensual, concrete curvatures; the static symmetry of the structure poetically contrasts its witness to perpetual movement; conspicuous green space is carved out in perfect geometry, so that the organic and the inanimate mathematically coexist. For Lusztyk, these images reveal with new perspective a ubiquitous presence that nonetheless remains largely invisible. His vision of capturing the satisfying beauty of highways infuses the familiar with something new; it is the everyday at a remove, one that allows a privileged glimpse of the veins and arteries of both cities and the sinews that connect them.
These are portraits of the people and animals of The Royal Winter Fair. The event takes place every November in Toronto. It is the largest agricultural fair in the world.
“The Uncanny Valley,” a phrase coined by Masahiro Mori, suggests that human replicas that appear almost, but not exactly, like real human beings elicit eeriness and feelings of revulsion among observers. This exhibition of uncanny portraits of wax figures taken at Madame Tussauds museums in Las Vegas and Washington, DC invites viewers to test Mori’s theory. Depicting some of the most famous celebrities and recognizable people in the world, these wax figures are renowned for their likeness to the original subjects. As cultural artifacts, they represent a yearning to physically interact with even the verisimilitude of celebrity. The act of photography causes the Tussauds wax sculptures to appear more real than they do in the museum. This con is achieved by removing the sculpture’s failure of “liveness,” expected by the viewer when interacting with the three-dimensional form, and returning the copy to the more familiar mode of celebrity consumption used in popular culture and advertising. The resulting images in this exhibition are intended to confront issues of simulation and hyper-reality.
Portrait images
Assorted location photography from around the world.
Lusztyk’s “Collectible” series is a macro level exploration of coins, bills and stamps. These images are created with the intention of being reproduced on a very large scale giving the viewer the opportunity to gaze at these tiny artifacts from an unfamiliar perspective. The images point to our sense of nostalgia and our desire to organize and worship the things that we covet.
