Photo manipulation has been around as long as photography itself. But now, modern technology has totally changed the game. Many artists still use traditional techniques, but most of the artists in this article use software to make their incredible creations.
This article looks at the most amazing photo manipulation artists working today. AS well as examples of their work, we’ll provide links so you can visit their websites or follow them on social media.
Our aim is to show you the top artists in this field so you can find the inspiration you need to create your own photo manipulation masterpieces.
Before you start your own photo manipulation projects, let’s take a look at the top artists. Not matter what style of digital art you’re into, you’ll definitely find something to inspire you in this list.
Platon Yurich is a conceptual photographer and filmmaker. Every image in his portfolio focuses on a different theme and composition. He can make simple landscapes stand out thanks to his image manipulation skills.
Not all of Platon’s images are edited, though. He knows when to use props and when to rely on his photo manipulation skills to create seemingly impossible scenarios.
Platon Yurich: Instagram
Anna Maghradze is a digital collage artist with a loyal fan base. She is simplistic in her approach and never uses more than two or three photos for her collages. In doing so, her preference is to let the message of her work do the talking.
Anna’s artwork is surreal yet emotionally engaging, exploring themes of isolation and loneliness. She uses her compositions to portray her dreams, hopes, and fears as a Photoshop technician of great skill with an eye for narrative-focused image creation.
We’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with Anna on her incredible eBook, Digital Dreamworlds. It’s an in-depth look at how she creates her photo manipulation masterpieces. It covers everything from inspiration to the more technical side of it. It’s a must-read for digital art fans.
Invisible Girl: Website | Instagram
Nicholas Scarpinato is a fine art photographer. He often takes images of himself, others, and objects in surreal locations. His photo manipulations often feature unusual colors and compositions.
Nicholas shoots digital photography, but many of his photos look like they were shot on film. This nostalgic quality has attracted over 50,000 people to his Instagram page alone.
Nicholas Scarpinato: Website | Instagram
A Ukrainian artist living in New York, Anya Anti is fast becoming one of the world’s most preeminent photo manipulation artists.
Anti specialises in portraits, often self-portraits, that explore themes such as isolation, responsibility, and the environment.
While she loves to use physical props and costumes, her manipulation skills take her work to a new magical level. There’s more than just a hint of fantasy in her work, but the themes keep Anya’s work grounded and relatable.
Anya Anti is another of our fabulous collaborators. She has spilled all her secrets in the incredible Creative Portrait Concepts eBook. With this resource, you’ll learn how to make magical images just like Anya’s.
Anya Anti: Website | Instagram
Rosie Hardy is popular in the photo manipulation community. She frequently takes self-portraits in dreamy settings. Her images are conceptual. She often focuses on themes like social media, loneliness, and inspiration.
Rosie is an expert at creating realistic worlds. She can make the most unusual props look very real thanks to her expert skills. The most impressive part? She uses a free photo editing program called GIMP to edit many of her images.
Rosie Hardy: Website | Instagram
Melania Brescia is a fearless photo manipulation expert. She’s also a self-portrait photographer who specializes in conceptual work.
Melanie’s work is dark and ethereal at the same time. She’s not afraid to experiment with all kinds of colors, compositions, and angles.
Melania Brescia: Instagram
Marcus Møller Bitsch is an editorial, commercial, and conceptual photographer. His photo manipulation skills are unbelievable. He also creates moving images and animations.
Marcus’ images are both thought-provoking and quirky. Even his still-life commercial images have personality. His portfolio doesn’t disappoint.
Marcus Moller Bitsch: Website | Instagram
Kylli Sparre, or Sparrek, is a fine art photographer with a powerful gallery. Her background inspires Kylli’s work in dance. Because of this, she often takes photos of women dancing elegantly.
No matter how unreal her photo manipulations are, Kylli always manages to make them look real.
Kyllie Sparre: Website | Instagram
Daniel Serva is a surreal photographer with a vibrant portfolio. His photo manipulation portfolio is full of meaningful details.
He often starts with a self-portrait. He then uses different elements to turn it into a thought-provoking work of art.
Daniel often shares behind-the-scenes photo manipulation videos with his followers. He enjoys planning his photoshoots and taking spontaneous pictures at the same time.
Daniel Serva: Website | Instagram
Gonzaga Manso is a photographer and director. His photography manipulation looks like surreal paintings from another world. What makes them stand out from other images is the lighting.
Gonzaga often shoots in low-light conditions. This allows him to experiment with all kinds of interesting themes.
Gonzaga is also an award-winning director. His latest film, ADIVINA, has received over 30 awards. His knowledge of cinematography takes his photo manipulation skills to the next level.
Gonzaga Monso: Website | Instagram
Leah Johnston isn’t only a well-known photographer. She’s also an actor and filmmaker who has won numerous awards for her work. Her images are cinematic, gloomy, and conceptual.
On Leah’s website, you’ll find a full-size gallery of self-portraits with descriptions. Leah explains the story behind each photo and how she took it. It’s a great guide for those who want to better plan their photoshoots.
Leah Johnson: Website | Instagram
Aleah Michele Ford is a conceptual and fashion photographer. She often includes enormous insects or mythical creatures in her manipulation photos. You’ll see giant spiders, mermaids, moths, and more in her portfolio.
Aleah’s image manipulation work doesn’t look edited or color corrected. This makes her photos look realistic.
Aleah Michele Ford: Website | Instagram
Robert Cornelius says he’s hopelessly addicted to Photoshop in his Instagram bio. This addiction has resulted in hundreds of impressive photos.
Mythology, fairytales, and cinematography inspire Robert’s images. His photos feature mythical creatures, wild animals, and ethereal landscapes. All of these elements make his images look like perfect digital paintings.
Robert Cornelius: Website | Instagram
Julien Tabet transforms photos of wild animals into fantasy-themed art. You’ll find all kinds of wild and wonderful animals in his photo manipulation gallery. You’d see These kinds of creatures in Salvador Dali’s paintings!
Julien’s editing skills will entertain and inspire you.
Julien Tabet: Website | Instagram
A fine art photographer, Brooke Shaden often photographs herself. Then she manipulates the image into another world. She describes her work as looking at the juxtaposition of light and dark within people.
Her images often look like they could have come from a fantasy storybook. Or even off the walls of art museums.
She started with minimal gear and resources. And she often continues to use herself as a model for her work. Hailing from Pennsylvania, she’s also an author and speaker.
Follow Brooke Shaden on Instagram to glimpse what’s possible in the genre, even if the only model you have available is yourself.
Brooke Shaden: Website | Instagram
Aydın Büyüktaş earned viral fame for his series of mind-bending aerial drone images, Flatlay.
The series takes aerial landscapes and folds them away from you. It’s as if the ground could bend like a sheet of paper. He crafts his images using a mix of planning, composites, and 3D software.
The Flatlay series earned him viral fame. But his earlier work also includes several successful mind-bending series. These question reality and even the laws of gravity. Büyüktaş is a native of Turkey.
Aydin Buyuktas: Website | Instagram
According to his biography, Erik Johansson views a photograph as a moment and an idea. He blends and manipulates several images together to create a surreal scene.
Johansson says he aims to make that scene look as realistic as possible. Even when capturing a physically impossible world.
From unzipping a road to installing the moon. His work questions reality while creating an impossible yet inspiring scene.
Erik Johansson: Website | Instagram
Charlie Davoli is a surrealist photographer. He often uses photo manipulation to juxtapose two different ideas. According to his bio, that juxtaposition stems from a move from Singapore to Italy as a child.
His former work also inspires his photography art as a musician.
His photo manipulation work includes flip-flopping the ground and the sky, blending opposite places into the same scene, or bringing the sky down to earth (or everyday objects up to the sky).
Charlie Davoli: Website | Instagram
Dimitry Rogozhkin’s work could have come straight from an apocalyptic Hollywood hit. He often mixes photo manipulation with portraiture.
A long-time love of drawing and art also inspires his work. His Instagram is an organized grid that deserves a second and a third look. The Russian photographer also travels often and captures his adventures.
Dmitry Rogozhkin: Website | Instagram
Jati Putra isn’t a photographer but a graphic designer. That background helps the Indonesia-based artist create images that make viewers pause to digest what they see.
His work adapts existing images. But it often makes it difficult to tell which way is up or down. Oceans bend at a 90-degree angle, and flat landscapes become three sides to a rectangle.
Jati Putra Pratama: Instagram
Robert Jahns (Nois7) may be a photo manipulation artist, but his work is so well done the images look lifelike.
Jahns is an art director, photographer, and digital artist. He creates vibrant painterly images using photo manipulation techniques.
While his work often plays with the impossible, he uses the natural world to give a lifelike quality to his art.
Robert Jahns: Website | Instagram
Anka Zhuravela spent her childhood sketching. As an adult, she realized photographs often inspired her drawings and paintings.
After picking up photography, Zhuravelva became a visual artist. She often mixes her art background with her photographs for inspiring photo manipulation images. The Russian artist has been featured in several gallery exhibitions.
Anka Zhuravleva: Website | Instagram
Eugenio Recuenco is a Madrid-born photographer with a painter’s background. He creates impossible images using more than just digital manipulation. Recuenco creates his own sets.
That, mixed with a background in art and inspiration from historical art periods, creates otherworldly images. His latest work makes real people look like part of a museum exhibit.
Eugenio Recuenco: Website | Instagram
Frieke Janssens is a surreal conceptual photographer. She creates images from photo manipulation and composing elaborately planned sets and props.
The Belgian photographer studied drawing and painting. Her work is often controversial, tackling tough subjects. But it’s that controversy that makes her work so memorable.
Frieke Janssens: Website | Instagram
Lara Zankoul is a self-taught photographer. She learned to experiment — a skill that’s still integral to her work. Even now, after several international galleries.
According to her biography, Zankoul aims to capture societal issues and everyday behavior. But also to allow the viewer to draw their own conclusions.
Her work is striking and versatile. She follows a series of white with a series of vibrant, colorful images with strong lines and patterns.
Lara Zankoul: Website | Instagram
Tommy Inberg had always enjoyed photography. But he went to college and started a career as a computer programmer before he started using photography as therapy.
From there, Inberg mixed his computer background with his passion for photography in fine art. The Swedish photographer uses a series of images to tell a story. He often does it through juxtaposition or by removing something integral.
Tommy Ingberg: Website | Instagram
Artist Alberto Seveso’s interest in the CD covers of the 90s sparked a lifelong passion for artwork. An original spark that still shows traces in his work.
Seveso is both a photographer and illustrator. He often mixes the two mediums to create unique, inspiring artwork.
He’s also worked with several major brands. These include names familiar to photographers like Adobe, Nikon, and Sony.
Alberto Seveso: Website | Instagram
Artist Unknown i an isn’t exactly unknown – he’s Ian De Novellis, a digital artist. Unknown i an doesn’t have decades of art experience. But his work encompasses an impressive array of colorful images.
His work is often an incredible mashup, from a jellyfish carnival ride to a polar bear made from clouds.
UnknownIan: Website | Instagram
An interest in abandoned homes first inspired Kyle Thompson to pick up a camera. This initial inspiration can still be seen in his work today.
Much of his work is a self-portrait taken in a desolate location. While he’s often his own model, his work often hides his face, so it’s easy to imagine anyone in the image.
Not all his images are a result of Photoshop manipulation. But he often uses compositing to create surreal images that feel post-apocalyptic.
He also says he only knows the basics of Photoshop composting. His work shows what’s possible even without extensive Photoshop training if that’s true.
Kyle J. Thomson: Website | Instagram
Shaun Ryken is a graphic designer based in Ontario. His work, which often looks straight out of a sci-fi movie, has amassed more than 45,000 fans on Instagram.
He says Photoshop helps him escape – and he creates images that help viewers escape into a fantasy world too.
Shaun Ryken: Website | Instagram
Tim El-Helou’s work shows an impressive understanding of Photoshop techniques. His work often puts something out-of-place, alters scale, or both.
The result is often an image that almost looks real until it makes you look twice. El-Helou shares a few tips and tricks on mastering photo manipulation on YouTube.
Tim El-Halou: Website | Instagram
Going just by Rafy A, this digital artist is worth following. Not only for the stunning imagery but because he will teach you how to do the same thing with your own work.
His Instagram is a feed of fantasy worlds. And his YouTube channel shows just how the image was created.
Rafy Alfazri: YouTube | Instagram
This is another artist who invites fans to see the behind-the-scenes process. Andhika Zanhuar creates fantasy worlds using Photoshop manipulation techniques.
Besides seeing his work on Instagram, you can see how the image was created on YouTube.
Andika Zanuar: YouTube | Instagram
Photographs most often capture the real world. Seeing a manipulated image makes us pause to think and reconsider how we view the world.
Expert photo manipulation artists know that. They spend their time imagining new worlds and creating surreal images.
These artists demonstrate what’s possible with a good image, Photoshop, and some imagination. Follow these top Photoshop artists for a steady stream of inspirational edits.
Check our Digital Dreamworlds eBook to take amazing photos if you loved these!
![P35 [Lead gen] sidebar banner Related ebook](https://expertphotography.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/P35-Lead-gen-sidebar-banner-Related-ebook-300x295.png)
![P35 [Lead Gen] Sidebar Banner 2](https://expertphotography.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/P35-Lead-Gen-Sidebar-Banner-2-300x245.png)
![P35 [Lead Gen] Sidebar Banner 1](https://expertphotography.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/P35-Lead-Gen-Sidebar-Banner-1-300x245.png)