Branislav kropilak biography

Born in 1982, lives and works on this lovely little planet.
Currently lives and works in Bratislava.
You were born in Slovakia, spent most of your childhood in Belgium, studied in Czech Republic and now, you live and work in that country.

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Billboards by Branislav Kropilak

Born in Slovakia and bred in Belgium, photographer Branislav Kropilak has used his well-rounded intellect to take some very intriguing photography. The main theme of his work is investigating the way in which modern technology has shaped the human environment and our lives. He is inspired by industrial design, architecture and urbanism. Our favorite happens to be his interest in taking shots of billboards.

More images after the jump.

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Branislav Kropilak

Branislav Kropilak is fascinated by industrial architecture. After several years living abroad, he was pleased to return to his native Slovakia so that he could photograph factories. “Many people don’t like them because they’re factories and they smell bad,” he says, “but I was always amazed by how they look – like out-of-space cities.”

The 27-year-old is following in the footsteps of legendary German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher, who documented blast furnaces, cooling towers and grain elevators around the world, treating them as rigorous architectural typologies. Kropilak’s structures, however, are more alive. They glow menacingly, like Archigram cities with a will of their own.

The Factories series, which documents oil refineries on the outskirts of Bratislava and nearby Vienna, is photographed entirely at night. “I love to work at night,” says Kropilak. “I shoot from 2am to 4am, that’s my best time because I know nobody will disturb me, and things just look different.” Th

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We often cover photographers that contribute to the documentation and artistic work on the urban environment and other related topics. Now, Branislav Kropilak’s images of industrial, urban, and corporate landscapes got us thinking about how modern technology has shaped the human environment.

We can read the following conversation about his focus on the industrial:

Your photography projects focus on industrial, urban, and corporate landscapes largely devoid of the human presence. Are you, in any way, trying to document the alienation inherent in these topographies? Or, are you simply more interested in their formalistic qualities?

It is true that I often prefer to focus on the subjects in their purest forms, but it really depends on the series and its concept. In ‘Garages’ for instance, the lack of human presence is clearly intended, the series illustrates the utopian image how these places would look if society wasn’t bound by the consumption mechanism.

The image above is reminiscent of the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher and their famous photographs