Photo Illustrator Hugh Kretschmer

Hugh Kretschmer, the in-demand photo illustrator, explains how his creations for Esquire, Men's Health and others are done without the aid of Photoshop. Here is an excerpt from the American Photo online article.

At first glance, professional photographer and photo illustrator Hugh Kretschmer's work looks like the result of Photoshop wizardry. His surreal photographs reveal other worlds, born of Kretschmer's imagination, where a man's body can be firmly set in the ground while his head is, literally, in the clouds; where a giant alien woman attempts to eat all of New York; where tightrope walkers perch gracefully over tiny beds; and where the walls of sound rooms are, of course, covered in ears. Beyond the potency of Kretschmer's content, though, what's really amazing is that the bulk of his work is done manually, through a detailed process of collage and assemblage, with minimal digital finessing. Here, we consider the unusual process behind three of Kretschmer's photographs: Reformed Liar, All Ears and Return of the Thin Man.

Read the entire article on popphoto.com.