Photographer Tom Leighton tears apart, reshapes, and eventually recreates the very environment we live in until they are hardly recognizable. Through digital alterations, Leighton engage with the urban landscape. Turning it into something of his own imagination, free from the constraints of possibility and logic. As much as he pulls apart and constructs his unique urban views, his final goal is to create a believable, yet surreal view of the world, which remains rooted in reality. Leighton is very much an exploratory artist, both while out shooting new urban shots and while editing and creating the final product.

On a shoot, he explores a cityscape, looking for odd or exciting architecture. Leighton often improvises equipment such as his tripod to create a unique vantage points and to give viewer of his work an unconventional perspective. While altering his photos, however, Leighton breaks the very laws of physics, disregards all logic and rules, and explores new ways to bring his imagination to bloom. Leighton’s final works are pieces that seem not quite unfamiliar, yet exhibiting hints of a paranoid social conflict that plagues our society. Using a variety of natural light allows the digital artist to play with the brain’s capacity to ignore or falsely correct what doesn’t make sense. This effect leaves viewers with a memory of a place that doesn’t quite exist, but is very much rea.