Bored Panda reached out to Lucas to learn more about this project. By blending photos with illustrations, Lucas comes up with all sorts of humorous additions, and we were wondering what inspired him to start ‘Invading’ peoples’ photos.
Lucas shared: “I initially began by integrating illustrations with my own photographs. However, over time, I found it intriguing to amalgamate my work through collaborations with friends and fellow photographers. Photo Invasion embodies a fusion of my two passions: illustration and photography. It offers a distinctive and playful perspective on photography, incessantly exploring narratives beyond those initially conceived by the photographer. From its inception, it evolved into a form of game for me—a pursuit to unveil varied narratives from a single image and to envisage the photographer’s reaction to my interventions.”
In Lucas's illustrations, you will often meet funny characters interacting with real-life scenarios in the photos. We were curious to learn the process, from finding a photo to thinking of an idea.
“I have fun doing it. I travel through Instagram accounts looking for my victims and wait for an image to inspire me. I don’t choose the photos; they make themselves seen. I think the surprise of being invaded is better than the anticipation of imagining what I would do with the submitted photo. I like the freedom of creation. Some photos call for a ‘poetic’ invasion, others with more blatant humor. There are times when I feel I must speak about something that disturbs me and express an opinion. At other times, I find silence to be the best response,” explained Lucas.
'Photo Invasion' has garnered a lot of attention and popularity on social media platforms to the extent that people ask him to invade their photos. We asked Lucas to share what has been the most memorable or unexpected reaction he has received from someone whose photo he invaded.
“The first unexpected response was acceptance. Initially, I anticipated that people might feel I was infringing upon their photos, but the reality was quite the opposite. Now, there are more than 169k photos tagged with #IWantToBeInvaded. Another wonderful reaction occurred at the project's inception when I began to ‘invade’ the photos of strangers. After invading the photo of an Austrian amateur photographer, I received numerous requests for ‘invasions’ from a dynamic group of Instagram photographers. They even invited me to Vienna to conduct workshops and partake in celebrations over three days,” shared Lucas.
He continued: “The most rewarding response came from an Education Institute in Taiwan that invited me to display my work and conduct a week of workshops for children and teenagers. It was super cool to see folks from all walks of life digging my work, and my time there was a real eye-opener, showing me just how universal art can be.”
And lastly, we asked Lucas to share what are his future aspirations or projects that he’s excited to explore.
“I’m looking to turn Photo Invasion into a cool animated series and whip up a bunch of real-world stuff inspired by the process of invading photographs. Additionally, I want to publish or self-publish some children’s books related not only to photo interventions but also encompassing various other narratives inspired by my two little daughters. I’ve got too many projects that have been stuck in my drawer for way too long!”
