Light painting photography turns brutalist monuments into surreal images

the battle of sutjeska memorial monument complex, tjentište, bosnia & herzegovina | all images by yang xiao

designer and photographer yang xiao blurs the line between reality and fantasy with a photo series titled ‘ETERNAL MONUMENTS IN THE DARK’. the project focuses on brutalist and soviet modernist architecture from across eastern europe, mainly ex-yugoslavia and ex-soviet countries. shooting at night using light painting techniques, xiao transforms the real edifices into eerie and otherworldly images that look straight out of a dystopian movie.

the project started nine years ago, and since then xiao has traveled to over 40 countries to document a range of old buildings: from an abandoned iron fountain in armenia to a war memorial in bosnia & herzegovina. ‘in the last 9 years, I have been traveling around the world to capture monuments at night. mainly in ex-yugoslavia, ex-soviet, and east european countries. many of them nowadays have been abandoned and neglected,’  explains the photographer. 

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