Architecture goes abstract in the illusory world of Fabiola Menchelli

Alyn Griffiths, CNN
4 minute read
Updated 8:01 AM EDT, Thu June 30, 2016
Mexican artist Fabiola Menchelli manipulates light and architecture, using unconventional techniques and multiple exposures to craft her geometric monochrome photographs.<br /><br />Pictured: "Balancing Light" (2013)
Mexican artist Fabiola Menchelli manipulates light and architecture, using unconventional techniques and multiple exposures to craft her geometric monochrome photographs.

Pictured: "Balancing Light" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
"Light is my medium -- I want to bend it, twist it, shape it, materialize and transform it," she says. "My work is never about the finished space or documenting a place that we can inhabit... What is important to me is talking about the idea of space."<br /><br />Pictured: "Archway" (2012)
"Light is my medium -- I want to bend it, twist it, shape it, materialize and transform it," she says. "My work is never about the finished space or documenting a place that we can inhabit... What is important to me is talking about the idea of space."

Pictured: "Archway" (2012)
Fabiola Menchelli
Menchelli's mother and brother are both architects, which goes some way to explaining her fascination with the ways the manmade world is constructed, depicted and perceived.<br /><br />Pictured: "A Guitar For Paola" (2013)<br />
Menchelli's mother and brother are both architects, which goes some way to explaining her fascination with the ways the manmade world is constructed, depicted and perceived.

Pictured: "A Guitar For Paola" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
Rather than adopting a straightforward documentary approach to photography, Menchelli's artworks typically feature geometric shapes layered to create collage-like compilations that represent the built environment in abstract form. <br /><br />Pictured: "Hallucination No.5" (2013)
Rather than adopting a straightforward documentary approach to photography, Menchelli's artworks typically feature geometric shapes layered to create collage-like compilations that represent the built environment in abstract form.

Pictured: "Hallucination No.5" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
"One of the things I'm interested in is the materiality of photography and creating something that feels tangible in this digital world," she adds. "There is a problem with new media at the moment because there are no boundaries."<br /><br />Pictured: "Hallucination No.4" (2013)
"One of the things I'm interested in is the materiality of photography and creating something that feels tangible in this digital world," she adds. "There is a problem with new media at the moment because there are no boundaries."

Pictured: "Hallucination No.4" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
Almost everything is achieved using traditional photographic methods, with minimal post production.<br />Pictured: "Hallucination No.3" (2013)
Almost everything is achieved using traditional photographic methods, with minimal post production.
Pictured: "Hallucination No.3" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
Her "Ellipse" series captured the arching shapes of light falling on the curved concrete surfaces of an observatory at the Tadao Ando-designed Casa Wabi Foundation. <br /><br />Pictured: "Ellipse" (2016)
Her "Ellipse" series captured the arching shapes of light falling on the curved concrete surfaces of an observatory at the Tadao Ando-designed Casa Wabi Foundation.

Pictured: "Ellipse" (2016)
Fabiola Menchelli
For a series called "Polaroids", she used a rare 20 x 24-inch Polaroid camera to photograph layers of paper that were exposed multiple times to generate different colors and shapes, using only the characteristics of light and the developing process.<br /><br />Pictured: "Red and Pink polaroid" (2013)
For a series called "Polaroids", she used a rare 20 x 24-inch Polaroid camera to photograph layers of paper that were exposed multiple times to generate different colors and shapes, using only the characteristics of light and the developing process.

Pictured: "Red and Pink polaroid" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
Pictured: "Blue and Green polaroid" (2013)
Pictured: "Blue and Green polaroid" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
Pictured: "Yellow and Purple polaroid" (2013)
Pictured: "Yellow and Purple polaroid" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
"What excites me is to push the limits of what I can see, so I use a variety of different photographic techniques and materials to experiment with light," she says. <br /><br />Pictured: "Untitled" (2012)
"What excites me is to push the limits of what I can see, so I use a variety of different photographic techniques and materials to experiment with light," she says.

Pictured: "Untitled" (2012)
Fabiola Menchelli
"I try to create something that's from the imagination, that talks about space and color but is abstract and constructed inside the camera."<br /><br />Pictured: "Hallucination No.1" (2013)
"I try to create something that's from the imagination, that talks about space and color but is abstract and constructed inside the camera."

Pictured: "Hallucination No.1" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
At the Dubai Photo Exhibition earlier this year, Menchelli was selected by curator Magnolia de la Garza for inclusion in the Mexican exhibit, alongside several other artists whose works focus on architecture.<br /><br />Pictured: "Curved" (2012)
At the Dubai Photo Exhibition earlier this year, Menchelli was selected by curator Magnolia de la Garza for inclusion in the Mexican exhibit, alongside several other artists whose works focus on architecture.

Pictured: "Curved" (2012)
Fabiola Menchelli
"She's really into photographic techniques, and particularly traditional rather than just digital ones," De la Garza suggests. "I love that her work uses natural light to create a very abstract image so you almost forget what you are seeing."<br /><br />Pictured: "Construction No.4" (2012)
"She's really into photographic techniques, and particularly traditional rather than just digital ones," De la Garza suggests. "I love that her work uses natural light to create a very abstract image so you almost forget what you are seeing."

Pictured: "Construction No.4" (2012)
Fabiola Menchelli
"I am conscious that I am privileged to be a working artist," she points out. "My ambition is to be happy and continue working in the studio, encountering new ways of thinking about this world."<br /><br />Pictured: "Hallucination No.6" (2013)
"I am conscious that I am privileged to be a working artist," she points out. "My ambition is to be happy and continue working in the studio, encountering new ways of thinking about this world."

Pictured: "Hallucination No.6" (2013)
Fabiola Menchelli
Playing with light and shadow
CNN  — 

“Light is my medium – I want to bend it, twist it, shape it, materialize and transform it,” says Mexican photographer Fabiola Menchelli.

Menchelli’s experimental abstract images create the impression of three-dimensional space through dramatic compositions of light and shadow. To achieve this illusion of three-dimensionality in a strictly two-dimensional format, Menchelli employs a variety of unusual photographic processes to manipulate light in the same way an artist uses paint to depict a scene.

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“My work is never about the finished space or documenting a place that we can inhabit,” she explains from her studio in Mexico City. “What is important to me is talking about the idea of space.”