Digital photocollage by Kazuhiko Kawahara - called Palla - an artist from Osaka

I am not typically enamored of photoshop trickery, but when someone uses the tool successfully it can produce some memorable images rich with layers of light and meaning and speculation.

PingMag, a Tokyo-based online magazine about "Design and Making Things", features an interesting interview with Kazuhiko Kawahara (the artist known as Palla), a former architect who now uses photography and photoshop to realize his multilayered urban visions. In the interview, conducted by Uleshka, the artist talks about his process, and reveals the step-by-step construction of some of his images. There are also links to his visual blog, www.pallalink.net, which includes archives dating back to 2002. There are also online examples of photobooks he created that demonstrate the progression from a single image into mind-bending imaginary urban landscapes.

Kazuhiko Kawahara was one of the featured artists in the Canon New Cosmos of Photography Exhibition 2006 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, where he projected these dizzying images on a curved screen that wrapped around the walls and ceiling of the installation space.

Thanks to Sean Smith for the pointer.