Have you ever looked at a cityscape from a distance and thought about how much it looks like a toy or a game? Like Lego building blocks or perhaps Tetris? Well, so has visual artist Mariyan Atanasov who brings this idea to life in a new series entitled Urban Tetris.
The artist, based in Paris and Texas, presents a new project that plays with the blocks of high-rise residential buildings in Sofia, Bulgaria. At first, Atanasov edits out distractions like phone wires and trees from the images. After that, he sets the photos to a blank backdrop before using editing software to chop the buildings into blocks.
Once the buildings have been dissected, Atanasov positions the pieces as though they were part of the iconic ‘80s video game, Tetris, created by Russian software engineer Alexey Pajitnov. The floating blocks give the pictures an eery, futuristic feel as well as emphasising the regimented style of Soviet buildings.
Mariyan Atanasov’s Urban Tetris is just one of the artist’s takes on modern cities. Using his eye for fragmentation, shape and contrast, he has previously documented Berlin, Istanbul and Georgia.
You can find more of Atanasov's work on Behance and Instagram.
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