Nicolas Damiens, who moved to Singapore from Paris two years ago to advance his career as a visual designer, has been capturing the sights and sounds of Singapore’s summer months during his free time. This personal project, called City Pop, was started just over a month ago. It documents Singapore’s palm trees, buildings, and oceans with striking pastel hues that combine nostalgic appeal with a retro atmosphere.
City Pop has a great name. Each image is bursting with hazy, smooth colours that seem to jump off the screen. Surprisingly, each photo was taken spontaneously. Nicolas found Singapore to be a city full of surprises.
These colourful photos were not created without some editing. Nicolas tells Creative Boom that the primary part of his work is photo editing and retouching. He makes a balanced composition to emphasize the main subject and removes unnecessary details. Finally, he adjusts the colours to achieve the desired vintage ambience.
Travel broadens your mind and, therefore, your creativity. Nicolas says. He explains that when he relocates to a different country, “everything appears exotic, and you get to see everything in a whole new light.”
“Before I moved to London, I lived in Paris, and New York. I have always intuitively linked each city with a unique colour scheme and music. This is probably due to my background as a professional.”
Nicolas’ approach to choosing his subjects combines three ingredients: minimalism, geometry, and colour. While his subjects are often buildings, they could also be flowers, objects, or anything else that can be turned into an image.
Nicolas’ favourite image is the one that breaks even more rules and shows patterns in his environment. “A friend asked me to combine two photos into a print. While working on it, I noticed a connection between the architecture of the well-known Chinatown building and the chopsticks.
The images mirror each other. This was not the original intent, but it was quite fascinating.
Nicolas’s professional schedule is one of the most difficult obstacles he will face when attempting to make City Pop. He works for Publicis Premiere during the day but is free to play his role of “image maker” at night.
He says that City Pop is an unrelated side project to his main job. It allows him to express himself without being restricted by the client feedback he receives in the advertising industry. It is a creative playground that allows me to enjoy the process fully.
City Pop has been running for more than a year, but the project is getting started. “I will continue to post weekly on my Instagram, and I’m aiming for a 2024 exhibition,” he concluded.
While digital platforms are great for sharing my artwork, I appreciate printed materials. I can’t wait to have my City Pop creations in a physical form.