This British photographer travels the world replacing tourist monuments with cheap souvenirs.
A toy yellow cab on the streets of Manhattan
During a trip to NY in 1998, the photographer Michael Hughes was drinking coffee out of a paper cup on a ferry to Staten Island. As he observed the Statue of Liberty, he realized that his coffee cup had a drawing of the monument printed on it, so he took a picture of it, putting the drawing of the monument in front of the monument itself.
That was the first photo in a hobby that, in time, has become a collection of over 100 images taken in 200 different countries. Each time Hughes arrives in a city, he acquires all sorts of souvenirs and typical products and, with the help of his camera, he plays with perspective so that these keepsakes substitute for some tourist attraction or other and blend harmoniously in with the background.
Many of his photos also have a touch of the comic: a plastic pencil case shaped like a bus that looks like it’s driving around the streets of London, a little girl eating an ice cream shaped like the tower of Pisa, or a stuffed camel doll hanging around the pyramids in Cairo.
You can see some of his photos in his gallery Flickr, others are posted on blog and, also, the book was published a few months ago: it’s the size of a postcard, of course, and it’s called "Souvenirs".
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A toy yellow cab on the streets of Manhattan
