Anton Repponen, Misplaced.

Anton Repponen is defined as an interactive designer with a background in architecture. He lives and works in New York, where he set up his design studio Anton & Irene.


Misplaced has two meanings: “incorrectly positioned” and “temporarily lost”.
And a closer look at Anton Repponen's photographic output shows you both definitions; he photographed landmark buildings in New York like the Guggenheim, the United Nations, the new Whitney, just to mention three of the eleven buildings he has shared with us. He then uses post-production processes to move these landmarks to a brand new context, completely different from their original location - desolate landscapes with dark colours that Repponen himself has photographed around the world.
A harmless process to all intents and purposes, a kind of collage with an immediate visual impact, forcing the viewer to delve deep into their subconscious to find a way of constantly adapting to the viewing perspective. Because not only does Anton Repponen move the buildings out of the city (incorrectly positioned), he also moves something inside the viewer, who is  "temporarily lost" when looking at these buildings out of their normal urban context. By lifting them out of their medium - New York - and dropping them onto other surfaces, Repponen actually changes our perspective and actively engages us in the creative process.
This procedure makes you feel so odd that you start wondering if it's the building that's misplaced or if it's you, thereby attributing stability and duration to constructions and more importantly taking for granted the unchanging nature of the backdrop, fundamental ingredient for any project to be a landmark or not.
These thoughts were generated after attentive contemplation of the Misplaced project by Anton Repponen, because to tell the truth, the Metropolitan Opera House doesn't look too bad at all in a deserted location, showing off its exotic traits, while The Standard Hotel looks a bit like a lunar station (and not even just vaguely), whereas the IAC Building by Gehry turns out to be an excellent backdrop for a Sci-Fi film, where the Guggenheim turns into a space ship.
The Misplaced project by Anton Repponen is accompanied by short stories written by Jon Earle, verbal nonsense that boosts and broadens the incisiveness of the images. This combination is in line with the work of Anton & Irene, for years working in the area of design and Visual Communication, here showcasing all the evocative power of the photograph and of its creative reprocessing.

Christiane Bürklein (@chrisbuerklein)

Anton Repponen
http://misplaced.design/
http://work.repponen.com/
http://antonandirene.com/