Architecture in Music: Photo Series by Charles Brooks

Drawing inspiration from his previous career as a musician, photographer Charles Brooks captures incredible images that reveal the hidden structures inside musical instruments.

To achieve these incredible shots, Charles uses specialist probe lenses and complex imaging techniques.

“Each photo is a blend of hundreds of frames. The unprecedented sharpness and detail renders these spaces as vast rooms, exposing the tool marks of the makers, repairs carried out through the centuries, and the hidden architecture within.

Charles chooses rare instruments with fascinating histories: A cello once hit by a train, a didgeridoo hollowed out by termites, an exquisite Fazioli grand piano hand-made from 11’000 individual parts. Each instrument is photographed hundreds of times with ever increasing focal lengths.

These frames are then painstakingly blended together to form a single image. The clarity and carefully chosen perspectives trick the mind into believing the space is much larger than reality. A 240 year old cello looks like the inside of an ancient ship, a century old saxophone becomes a gaping tunnel of green and gold, the keys of a piano become a monolithic temple.”

If you love the series you can buy prints on his website.

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