PASTEL CITY

ELISA BAUDINO

// Elisa is a self-taught photographer from Lugano, Switzerland, who particularly enjoys photographing architecture and cinematic portraits. We are pleased to show some images from her series “Pastel City”, where she has applied her photo art to create aesthetically pleasing pastel hues.

Photography has always been present in my life (polaroids as a child, disposable Kodaks, analogue…) but she had not considered it earnestly until recent years. “Honestly I never wanted to make up my mind because of fear and also because of the pressure of family expectations. I feel myself as a photographer but not a professional one (full time and financially). I am more a part timer.” She taught herself the basics through textbooks, talking to other photographers and watching some videos on YouTube. “Some photographers are a source of inspiration for me, they show me new points of view and never cease to surprise and inspire me.”

This is now Elisa´s fourth year as a serious photographer. “Of all the things I have tried to photograph, my favourites remain cinematic portraits and architecture,” she adds.

“Some days I do appreciate things more, eggs, flowers, but then I decide I’m only having an attack of sentimentality, my brain going pastel Technicolor, like a beautiful-sunset greeting cards they used to make so many of in California. High-gloss hearts. The danger is grayout.”

Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale)

What draws you to the arts?

“My need for inspiration is most of all how I engage with art. Scrolling through pages in Instagram, speaking with other artists, reading books, seeing a good movie, and making art myself to test.”

What do you like best about your pastel city project?

“The vibe of it. It seems relaxing and charming.”

This project “Pastel City” is Elisa´s personal point of view of buildings and architectures details, which she edited with pastels hues. “I found very interesting how hues and colours can changes people’s perception and make them feel or think about a location incorrectly,” she says. “The pastel architecture photos were born almost out of boredom. In the city where I live (Lugano, Switzerland), I started to think of the corners of buildings and designs as isolated and unconnected places. For example, I imagined a building that I illustrate in post production as pink or orange to be by the sea.”

She managed to find a really simple method to achieve these results. With passport checker she creates an accurate colour profile for one scenario (time, position of the sun, white balance). (Elisa explained that passport checker is an X-rite product and is a physical palette with the colours on one side and the gray and white paper on the other. By taking a picture of the open passport you have a more faithful sampling of the colour palette to use and edit in any photo editing software.) She prefers to underexpose the images a bit. This colour profile simplifies her editing process greatly, she just has to apply her profile and make some adjustments.

We love the look of Elisa´s images. Enjoy these dreamy altered architectural visions!

Click on the photos to see a larger image.