I would never claim to be a photographer. 

Not in the company I keep. I'm surrounded by incredibly talented visual artists who have studied and slaved and assisted for years. Who have put in the time to master the techniques and tools of the trade. I am humbled and admire them. My late brother was a master photographer, whose talent and tenacity will never be matched. Forever in his shadow, I am not a photographer.

I will give myself this though. 

I can create an image. My years of illustration, design and art direction have allowed me to understand the rhythm and play of line, the theatre of forms as they engage with each other and the open dialogue of space. I am a keen witness with a great love of the visual arts. I hope you enjoy my pictures.

Con/struct  |  Cape Town  |  2014 

"If Mad Max Were a Brilliant Architect, Here’s What He’d Build"

Written by Liz Stinson for Wired.com

IT’S HARD TO know what’s real and what’s fake inside the worlds Justin Plunkett creates. That rusted merry-go-round-like structure in the above photo? That’s a real-life playground in the Cape Town neighborhood of Lavender Hill. The monolithic roller coaster behind it? A product of Plunkett’s 3-D animation skills. 

In his recent Con/struct series, Plunkett, a Cape Town designer and creative director, has created a Mad Maxfantasy world, filled with tottering skyscrapers made of refuse from a bygone era. Each of his images is the result of multiple photographs layered together with computer-generated illustrations. Plunkett had been amassing a collection of photographs taken in some of the most down-and-out neighborhoods of Cape Town. “I had been photographing places and environments for a while with no particular agenda or plan for them,” he says. He’ll take a tire from one, a metal container from another, the sky from a different photograph and then construct an illustrated architectural structure in the middle of it.

Pointed Commentary

The series is part study in South African architecture, part deep commentary on life in the country. In one image you see a Dutch-style home (illustrated), often considered to be a mark of wealth, set amongst gravel and a tattered, old sofa. In another you see an illustrated monument-like structure constructed from corrugated iron in the middle of a rubble-strewn field. Plunkett has turned this corrugated iron, which is often used to build shacks, into a thing of grand beauty. Context is key to really appreciating Plunkett’s work.

At its most basic, the series addresses the idea of empowerment, and what it means in to gain it and lose it in South Africa. As a creative director who often finds himself working with corporations that shill an empty, unattainable idea of success, Con/struct was a way to spark a conversation. There’s an enormous gap between the realities in impoverished areas and what success actually equates to,” he says.

The ambiguous relationship to reality is what makes Plunkett’s work so fascinating. You know deep down that what you’re looking at isn’t actually there, but the images do make you wonder: What if it were? “It’s a mash of references that are real, but they become quite fictional in the end,” he says. “I’d like people to look at it and ask themselves some kind of question. Is it real or is it not? What does it mean if it’s real or if it isn’t? That’s where it becomes really interesting.”

`Vitra Design Museum  |  Basel  |  2013

Nelson Mandela Memorial Concert  |  Cape Town  |  2013

Rockabilly Festival  |  Cape Town  |  2013

Abandoned Hospital  |  Johannesburg  |  2012

Bahrain  |  2005