Ben Thomas' series Chroma seeks to find the simplicity and flatness in cities

Ben Thomas’ series Chroma is full of collapsed textures and primary colours, and is eerily vacant. The Australian photographer purposefully “stripped out as much of the darker detail in the images as possible, to allow the vibrant colour to control the image,” he explains. “The idea of simplicity and flatness is where I’m at right now.”

This simplicity goes far beyond the final image and began with Ben’s approach. “I had up until then travelled with a heap of lenses and equipment, this time it was only a couple of lenses at a fixed focal length,” he explains. “I then looked for the architecture and place design that give cities their unique feel. A key factor was also the weather, which was critical for the treatment process.”

The series was shot in several locations including Hong Kong, Shanghai, London, Paris and Italy, because of this cross-pollination of places, the series feels weirdly mismatched as different styles of architecture and skylines collide. Ben manages to connect them through his use of colour, “the overarching colour treatment is something I’d been tweaking and experimenting with before shooting Chroma,” he explains. The aqua tones interspersed by faint yellows and pops of reds feel clean and detached, and according to Ben, “a hyperreal representation of the cities we live in.”