Francois Prost’s Photographs Of Architectural Replicas Are As Intriguing As They Are Eerie

For the series, the Parisian photographer traveled to the city of Hangzhou, China, and to America’s City of Lights, Las Vegas, to capture the recreations of the iconic Venetian sights—from the Rialto bridge to the world-known Piazza San Marco. Both destinations are striking examples of ‘duplitecture’, a predominantly Chinese trend of replicating foreign environments and iconic architecture styles. In ‘Little Venice’ in Las Vegas, elements are mainly rebuilt as tourist attractions, whereas the Venice replicas in Hangzhou are more remarkable, planned as real functioning neighborhoods. Prost took photos of both duplicate destinations and later replicated the compositions with the actual locations in the iconic city of canals.