So Often,

when looking at photographs,

 Photoshop has been used,

 but in all of these,

 photographs, the software is not used at all,

photographer John Dykstra says he believes in the power of perspective, his photo style is created entirely with practical effects and simple ingredients, such as paint, chalk, and glass, rather than digital image manipulation techniques, “My goal is to create photographs that dabble between abstract truths and concrete reality,” Dykstra says. “By drawing connections between illusions of realism and the subjectivity of human experience, my work lingers between daylight and daydream.”

here’s his account of how his first anamorphic illusion (shown above) came about: 

My first idea came to me when I thought about how our perspective can trap us, and how so many of our boundaries in life are self-imposed and illusionary. Combining that thought with anamorphic illusions lead me to the idea for “Penalty Box,” a self-portrait that depicts me as drawing the illusion of a box around myself in chalk. At first I tried drawing the illusion on paper, but that didn’t work at all. Then I remembered the work of John Chervinsky, who I discovered a month earlier just after his passing. He was using chalk on chalkboard to create these very interesting photographs, and I knew I had found the solution to creating my piece. I quickly built a small 8’ x 8’ x 4’ plywood stage in my parents’ garage—God bless them for letting me use that space—covered it with a pint of chalkboard paint, set up my camera, and then the magic happened.

it just goes to show what can be done without Photoshop, You can find more of Dykstra’s work on his Facebook, and Instagram, looking at photographs without the use of Photoshop reminded me of the days of when I had my own dark room, and other than changing the exposure time or a little fogging for me that was it.