A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… scratch that, these photos of crash landed “Star Wars” spacecraft look slightly too close to home.
It isn’t a Jedi mind trick.
It’s the work of French graphic artist Nicolas Amiard, who has been using the Photoshop force to bring George Lucas’s sci-fi Empire down to Earth.
Amiard says a trailer for the upcoming “Star Wars” sequel inspired him to blend space fantasy with the reality of popular world tourist destinations.
“‘Star Wars’ is an imaginary universe and bringing elements from this universe in our real world seemed to be a very interesting contrast to work on,” he tells CNN.
He says he realized that adding crashed “Star Wars” spaceships into some of the world’s biggest cityscapes could have surprising results.
Paris-based Amiard, 30, used his photo manipulation skills to blend an Empire TIE fighter into a classic London street scene, complete with red telephone box.
Other scenes show Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon slumped against the Manhattan waterfront, nose-down in the Hudson River, an Empire Star Destroyer against the Paris skyline and a starfighter in the alleyways of Tokyo.
Amiard, who usually turns his talents to advertising or television graphic artworks – and occasional tattooing – says he’s a fan of “Star Wars,” but views his crash images as a one-off series.
“I have two or three other visual projects like that in mind, but there’s no connection with ‘Star Wars,’” he adds.
“They’re subjects which influence my life. I can’t say more about that because I prefer to wait until they’re completed.”
See more of Amiard’s work at www.nicolasamiard.com