Architectural Designer

This visual experiment drops Western pop myths into the raw reality of rural India. Displaced from their cinematic skyscrapers, iconic superheroes wander dusty village squares and mingle with local crowds, a little like Alice down the rabbit hole. Their legendary powers remain, but the new setting forces them to adapt, carrying out their heroic duties in surreal, humble surroundings.

Characters in this study: Batman, Captain America, Deadpool, Poison Ivy, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Wonder Woman, Juggernaut, Winter Soldier.

As a student of architecture, architects themselves have always fascinated me. Each one has a signature: a way of detailing, a material palette, a geometry you can spot from across the street. This experiment asks what happens when two of those signatures collide. Every pair here is two people who never worked together — often two who never could have — and the brief given to both is the same house: remote, off grid, no road and no power line, standing in a landscape that is taking it back.

Each is one photograph rather than a set of details. An earlier run made six tight crops per pair and they read as renders of a wall; a single establishing shot has to show the whole building, which is the only way to see whether the two signatures actually met.

Two rounds, forty-eight houses. The first reaches back to the moderns and the regionalists — Ando, Barragán, Bawa, Doshi, Bo Bardi, Fathy; the second pairs the Pritzker generation and the starchitects, where the signatures are louder and the collisions are harder to resolve.

Architects in this study: Tadao Ando, Luis Barragán, Frei Otto, Lina Bo Bardi, Geoffrey Bawa, Sverre Fehn, John Lautner, Hassan Fathy, Glenn Murcutt, Rudolf Schindler, Jørn Utzon, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Oscar Niemeyer, Álvaro Siza, B. V. Doshi, Jean Prouvé, Buckminster Fuller, Pierre Koenig, Eileen Gray, Marcel Breuer, Toyo Ito, Ricardo Bofill, Charlotte Perriand, Wang Shu, Louis Kahn, Sigurd Lewerentz, Hans Scharoun, Rogelio Salmona, Adolf Loos, Eladio Dieste, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Kazuo Shinohara, Erich Mendelsohn, Félix Candela, Julia Morgan, Paolo Soleri, Konstantin Melnikov, Bruce Goff, Yasmeen Lari, Anna Heringer, Arata Isozaki, Ralph Erskine, I. M. Pei, Enric Miralles, Kenzo Tange, Gottfried Böhm, Marina Tabassum, Laurie Baker, Zaha Hadid, Peter Zumthor, Rem Koolhaas, Kengo Kuma, Norman Foster, David Chipperfield, Jean Nouvel, Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano, Shigeru Ban, Frank Gehry, Francis Kéré, Jacques Herzog, Thom Mayne, Steven Holl, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Kazuyo Sejima, Smiljan Radić, Lacaton & Vassal, Sou Fujimoto, Rafael Moneo, Grafton Architects, RCR Arquitectes, Bjarke Ingels, Mies van der Rohe, Alejandro Aravena, Moshe Safdie, Junya Ishigami, Richard Meier, Aldo Rossi, Robert Venturi, Fumihiko Maki, James Stirling, Daniel Libeskind, Philip Johnson, Winy Maas, Hans Hollein, Peter Eisenman, Christian de Portzamparc, Bernard Tschumi, Kisho Kurokawa, Bijoy Jain, Kevin Roche, Tatiana Bilbao, Gordon Bunshaft, Lina Ghotmeh, Riken Yamamoto, Jeanne Gang.

Since childhood I've been obsessed with superheroes: the universes of Marvel, X-Men and DC. This is that obsession put in front of a camera it never had. Every character sits for the same session — one black seamless backdrop, one hard key light, one frame each, no variations. What changes between them is only the face and what it is wearing.

The costume is treated as real material rather than as drawing: fabric that creases, lacquer that smears, metal that dents, skin that has pores and scars. A cast is photographed this way; a comic panel is not. Lining a hundred and thirty-two of them up under identical light turns the roster into something closer to a yearbook than a poster wall — the differences that survive are the ones that were always doing the work.

An earlier version of this set ran 26 characters against hazy outdoor backdrops. It has been reshot in full: 132 characters, one studio, DC, Marvel and X-Men lit the same way.

DC (44): Aquaman, Atrocitus, Bane, Batgirl, Batman, Black Adam, Black Manta, Brainiac, Catwoman, Clayface, Cyborg, Darkseid, Deathstroke, Doomsday, Flash, General Zod, Green Lantern, Harley Quinn, Hawkgirl, John Constantine, Joker, Killer Croc, Lex Luthor, Lobo, Martian Manhunter, Metamorpho, Mister Terrific, Mr. Freeze, Ocean Master, Peacemaker, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Ra's al Ghul, Red Hood, Riddler, Scarecrow, Shazam, Sinestro, Steppenwolf, Supergirl, Superman, Two-Face, Wonder Woman, Zatanna.

Marvel (56): Abomination, Black Panther, Black Widow, Blade, Bullseye, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Carnage, Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian, Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, Doctor Strange, Ebony Maw, Electro, Elektra, Galactus, Ghost Rider, Green Goblin, Groot, Hawkeye, Hela, Hulk, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Kang the Conqueror, Killmonger, Kingpin, Kraven, Loki, Moon Knight, Morbius, Mr Fantastic, Mysterio, Namor, Nick Fury, Proxima Midnight, Punisher, Red Hulk, Rocket Raccoon, Sandman, Scarlet Witch, Shang Chi, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Star Lord, Thanos, The Mandarin, The Thing, Thor, Ultron, Venom, Vision, Vulture, Winter Soldier.

X-Men (32): Apocalypse, Archangel, Beast, Bishop, Blob, Cable, Colossus, Cyclops, Deadpool, Emma Frost, Gambit, Havok, Iceman, Jean Grey, Jubilee, Juggernaut, Lady Deathstrike, Magneto, Mister Sinister, Mystique, Nightcrawler, Omega Red, Professor X, Psylocke, Pyro, Quicksilver, Rogue, Sabretooth, Shadowcat, Storm, Wolverine, X-23.

Fifty sovereigns of the subcontinent — thirty-two kings and eighteen queens spanning over two thousand years of history — staged for an editorial royal photoshoot. Shot in Wes Anderson's signature planimetric frontality: centered, rigorously symmetrical, framed head-to-knees square to camera, with deadpan composure directly into the lens.

The background is the attire itself: the subject's own cloth, colour palette, and era-specific architectural motifs carried flat onto the set behind them, so the sovereign and the setting read as one designed world. No portraits survive for rulers before 1500, so their likenesses and court regalia were reconstructed from ancient coins, temple reliefs, and stone inscriptions, while later dynasties draw from court miniatures and period records.

Kings (32): Chandragupta Maurya, Bindusara, Ashoka, Chandragupta I, Samudragupta, Chandragupta II Vikramaditya, Harshavardhana, Pulakeshin II, Mahendravarman I, Narasimhavarman I Mamalla, Rajaraja Chola I, Rajendra Chola I, Prithviraj Chauhan, Rana Sanga, Maharana Pratap, Qutb ud Din Aibak, Iltutmish, Alauddin Khalji, Muhammad bin Tughluq, Krishnadevaraya, Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb Alamgir, Bahadur Shah Zafar II, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, Peshwa Baji Rao I, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Tipu Sultan.

Queens (18): Prabhavatigupta, Sembiyan Mahadevi, Didda, Razia Sultan, Rudramadevi, Rani Abbakka Chowta, Rani Durgavati, Chand Bibi, Nur Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal, Jahanara Begum, Rani Mangammal, Maharani Tarabai, Ahilyabai Holkar, Velu Nachiyar, Rani Chennamma, Rani Lakshmibai, Begum Hazrat Mahal.

Fifty iconic Hollywood characters across fifteen landmark films, recast as if each film had been conceived and shot in Indian cinema. The role, dramatic status, and psychological core of each character are preserved in full, while the casting, wardrobe, props, and environments are transplanted into period-authentic Indian settings with visceral, dark, and gritty aesthetic realism.

Each film inhabits a specific Indian world: The Godfather on a 1940s Malabar Hill estate, Goodfellas through the smuggling docks of 1970s Bombay, Pulp Fiction across 1990s Irani cafes, Shawshank within a colonial Deccan central jail, and Home Alone inside a winter-fogged Delhi bungalow. Photographed in waist-up 35mm film stills with dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, tactile natural textures, and period-correct tailoring.

The Godfather (6): Don Vito Corleone, Michael Corleone, Sonny Corleone, Fredo Corleone, Tom Hagen, Kay Adams

Goodfellas (5): Henry Hill, Jimmy Conway, Tommy DeVito, Paulie Cicero, Karen Hill

Pulp Fiction (5): Vincent Vega, Jules Winnfield, Mia Wallace, Marsellus Wallace, Butch Coolidge

Fight Club (3): The Narrator, Tyler Durden, Marla Singer

The Shawshank Redemption (3): Andy Dufresne, Ellis Redding, Warden Samuel Norton

Home Alone (3): Kevin McCallister, Harry, Marv

Rocky (3): Rocky Balboa, Adrian Pennino, Mickey Goldmill

The Terminator (3): The T-800, Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese

Reservoir Dogs (3): Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink

Inglourious Basterds (3): Lieutenant Aldo Raine, Colonel Hans Landa, Shosanna Dreyfus

Django Unchained (3): Django, Dr. King Schultz, Calvin Candie

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (3): The Bride, O-Ren Ishii, Bill

Scarface (3): Tony Montana, Manny Ribera, Elvira Hancock

Taxi Driver (2): Travis Bickle, Betsy

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2): Rick Dalton, Cliff Booth

Baki is a manga about bodies. Its whole argument is carried in anatomy — who is dense, who is long, who has been rebuilt, who is simply old and still unbeatable — and that argument is drawn, so it never has to answer to a real skeleton. This set makes it answer. Twenty-nine of the cast photographed as though a casting director had found them, in one session, under one light.

The system is deliberately narrow so the bodies are the only variable: vertical 3:4, a tight crop from head to waist, plain black studio background, hard sculpting key light and a restrained rim in the character's own colour. No environment, no props, no poster effects. Real skin — pores, sweat, scar tissue, age — instead of the smooth inflation that generated muscle usually defaults to.

Not everyone gets the gym-god treatment, which is the point. The elderly keep their age, and the non-fighters keep their ordinary build. A cast portrait is only worth taking if the cast is allowed to be uneven.

Built from a 29-character prompt set originally written for Flux 2 and re-adapted for GPT image generation; Yujiro, Yuichiro and Retsu were rewritten for closer manga fidelity.

Characters in this study: Baki Hanma, Yujiro Hanma, Jack Hanma, Yuichiro Hanma, Atsushi Suedou, Biscuit Oliva, Doppo Orochi, Dorian, Gaia, Gerry Strydum, Gouki Shibukawa, Hector Doyle, Iron Michael, Izou Motobe, Jaku Kaioh, Jun Guevaru, Kaku Kaioh, Kaoru Hanayama, Katsumi Orochi, Kiyosumi Katou, Kosho Shinogi, Kureha Shinogi, Mitsunari Tokugawa, Mohammad Alai Jr., Pickle, Retsu Kaioh, Ryuukou Yanagi, Sikorsky, Spec.

Deleuze and Guattari wrote in plateaus rather than chapters — twelve of them, each enterable from anywhere and none of them a conclusion. This is that book read back as pictures: twelve plateaus, nine panels each, one figure standing in every one of them.

The nine are an argument, not a gallery. Panels a to c are molar — the thing appears, organises, and locks. Panels d to f are molecular — a hairline opens, the cut widens, the flows overrun it. Panels g to i are the line of flight — the form breaks, the content disperses, and something remains standing. The cut is the event rather than the reveal, which is why panel d is almost panel c: one hairline apart, and everything after it follows from that.

Everything else is held still so that the change is the only thing you can read. Nineteenth-century engraving throughout, a locked nine-colour palette on a near-black ground, the same figure at eye level at the same scale, no perspective, no vanishing point, architecture only along the ground line. No borders — the canvas reaches every edge, which is the one rule the book itself would have insisted on.

The first plateau ends on One Standing Line. So does the twelfth.

Plateaus: Desiring-Machines · Body without Organs · Three Social Machines · Rhizome and Tree · Faciality · Becoming-Animal · Smooth and Striated · The Bent Head · Contiguous Offices · Chaos and the Plane · Three Forms of Thought · The Monument.