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Selected People: Photographer merges hundreds of images to create a chaotic over-populated world

With many experts predicting that the world population will hit 11 billion by 2100, Boston-based photographer Pelle Cass's fascinating series Selected People might be a stark warning of what's to come.

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Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of Pelle Cass

Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of Pelle Cass

Choosing a specific location – a street corner or park – he takes hundreds of exposures of the same spot during an entire day. He then takes his work back to his studio to merge the images and create layer after layer of people, traffic and wildlife. The result is often chaotic scenes that show us a glimpse of what could be an over-populated world.

Cass explains: “This work both orders the world and exaggerates its chaos. With the camera on a tripod, I take many dozens of pictures and simply leave in the figures I choose and omit the rest. The photographs are composite, but nothing has been changed, only selected. My subject is the strangeness of time, the exact way people look, and a surprising world that is visible only with a camera.”

Discover more at www.pellecass.com. Or follow Cass on Instagram.

A snowy park scene densely populated with hundreds of people sledding, walking and playing, merged from multiple exposures to create a chaotic, layered composition
Composite photograph showing dozens of people densely crowded on a blue footbridge spanning a river, with park and trees visible beyond
Composite photograph showing a crowded park and paddling pool with hundreds of overlapping people, children and a dog layered throughout the scene
A busy park scene with dozens of people and dogs scattered across grass and pathways, created by merging multiple photographs of the same location throughout a day
Overhead view of a crowded plaza with hundreds of people in yellow and orange shirts scattered across a brick surface, creating a dense, chaotic composition
Composite photograph showing a waterfront park with layered figures of people scattered throughout, trees, a city skyline, and boats on the water, depicting an exaggerated crowded scene from multiple exposures merged together
Crowded autumn park scene with hundreds of people in various costumes and colourful clothing, merged from multiple exposures to show layered density and chaos
Composite photograph showing hundreds of people and pigeons densely layered around a gnarled tree trunk in a park, creating a chaotic scene of over-population
Overhead view of a crowded urban street intersection with hundreds of pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles layered together, creating a dense, chaotic composition of people in varied coloured clothing
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