Sweet architectural sculptures made from stacked chewing gum sticks by Sam Kaplan

With no post-editing or use of any software, it's difficult to imagine that these raw, still-life shots were captured without any additional help. Instead, Sam painstakingly constructed each food sculpture – using either red, yellow, green or white chewing gum sticks – creating stunning, often geometric shapes and patterns that mimic tower blocks, pyramids, architectural features such as archways, and even an entire Emerald City.

Kaplan originally wanted to find a way to manipulate a material into a 3D pattern, rather than photographing chewing gum. He explains: "I wanted to find a material that could be both repeatable and remain uniform. I also wanted a high level of malleability and after a lot of trial and error I landed on gum. I have always been interested in futurist and Mayan architecture, and this project was a way to combine both of those to make new forms."

You can discover more incredible formations at www.samkaplan.com or check out his Instagram feed.

Via Colossal | All images courtesy of Sam Kaplan