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InspirationPhotography

Oli Kellett's enchanting street photography of 21st century America

As part of an ongoing body of work, Oli Kellett has spent the past year travelling back and forth across the US, making trips to LA, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, Houston, New York and Atlanta to document modern America.

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All images courtesy of the artist. Via Creative Boom submission.

All images courtesy of the artist. Via Creative Boom submission.

Drawing inspiration from some of the pioneers of Chicago street photography – Harry Callahan and Ray Metzker – his new collection continues the long tradition of documenting people within urban environments. His images also call on moments in art history, while simultaneously rousing a confused image of the American Dream in the 21st Century.

A former ad creative, Oli crossed over to photography a few years ago and never looked back. His work explores the "everyday, the average and the overlooked – preoccupied with how he can make this beautiful instead of mundane".

Woman in light blue shirt and burgundy trousers with arms raised stands on a street corner beneath a one-way sign, with storefronts and other pedestrians in the background
A person holds a large wooden sign reading "JESUS LOVES YOU HE IS COMING REPENT" on a quiet urban street lined with historic buildings
Woman with long red hair viewed from behind, exhaling vapour in front of a curved modernist building on a sunny urban street
Group of people gathered beneath a street lamp on a vast concrete plaza between modernist buildings
Yellow school bus parked beside a dark brown corrugated metal building under clear blue sky
A group of people stand in a sunlit courtyard beneath a classical stone building, with dramatic shadows cast across the paved ground
Lone figure in white shirt standing in an empty downtown street lined with tall buildings and storefronts, flooded with golden sunlight
Narrow urban alleyway between tall dark buildings with wet pavement and distant light at the end, a lone figure visible in the distance
A warm-lit brick building facade at night with multiple rows of windows, casting an amber glow against the dark street below
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