Guan Yu Statue, Yuncheng, China. 80 meters (262 feet). Built in 2010
Paris-based photographer Fabrice Fouillet travels around the world taking pictures of gigantic political, religious and ideological monuments for his latest series ‘Colosses.’
Instead of merely capturing their massiveness, Fouillet is more interested in how they integrate into their landscapes despite their enormous sizes, as well as the reasons for the “human-sized desire behind these gigantic declarations.”
With these intentions in mind, he photographs statues like Japan’s Grand Byakue and China’s Guan Yu from unusual perspectives to portray them in a different light, away from their usual touristic or religious surroundings.
Human beings appear as tiny, insignificant figures to further emphasize the disproportion between them and the gargantuan shrines they worship.
“I wanted human figures in the pictures because by definition the creature and its creator go together. There is also the opposition of the lasting and the living, of the stone and the flesh, of power and vulnerability,” he said in an email to Slate.
Fouillet has been traveling for a year and has three monuments left to shoot, one of which is the uncompleted Statue of Unity in India, which will be the world’s tallest at twice the height as the Statue of Liberty.
Check out some of his photos below and view more at his website.
Dai Kannon, Sendai, Japan. 100 meters (330 feet). Built in 1991
African Renaissance Monument, Dakar, Senegal. 49 meters (161 feet). Built in 2010
The Motherland Call, Volgograd, Russia. 87 meters (285 feet). Built in 1967
Grand Byakue, Takazaki, Japan. 42 meters (137 feet). Built in 1936
Christ Blessing, Manado, Indonesia. 30 meters (98.5 feet). Built in 2007
Ataturk Mask Buca, Izmir, Turkey. 40 meters (132 feet). Built in 2009
[via Slate, images via Fabrice Fouillet]