Watch Erik Johansson Create One of His Surreal Photos from Scratch

Erik Johansson creates some of the most stunning surreal images in the world, and Volvo recently decided to follow him around and document his process as he shot his latest personal project. The final video is equal parts inspirational and just plain beautifully shot.

The short BTS video was created as part of Volvo’s “Human Made Stories” series, and it was shot over the course of 3 days while Erik ran around capturing all of the pieces he needed and putting them together—all while spouting inspirational words of wisdom and driving a gorgeous new Volvo, of course (which, sadly, he doesn’t get to keep).

You can see the final product, an image titled Wake Up, below:

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And here are some 100% crops that show off some of the details:

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Every piece of the image you see above was shot by Erik—no CGI or stock imagery at all.

“Trees were chopped down and placed in a lake at 4AM when the water was calm. The model was shot in a swimming pool in similar soft natural light and finally the trees under the water’s surface were shot from a cherry picker right above the tree level,” he explains on his website. “All material shot on a Hasselblad H6D-50c and combined using Photoshop. There are no CGI or illustrated elements in the final photograph.”

Check out the full inspirational short up top to see how the entire image came together, then click here to see some of Erik’s other amazing work we’ve featured over the years. And if you want to see even more of his work, you can visit his website or give him a follow on Facebook and Instagram.

(via Erik Johansson via Fstoppers)