What If You Dropped Manhattan Into the Grand Canyon?

When Swiss photographer Gus Petro took a trip to the United States last year, he was struck by two things – the vast emptiness of the Grand Canyon and the sheer density of New York City. Petro writes about his experience when he visited the Grand Canyon the first time.

When we arrived at the place it was too dark to see a thing. We went on the cliff and tried out our powerful spotlights but all light was just sucked by the abyss. We had to wait for the morning. I remember waking up still at night and getting there again. It was completely dark. I just sat there and waited not knowing what to expect for until the dawn came. I was blown away by the view and the feeling.

Petro came to the Grand Canyon, one week after seeing New York City. The "contrast between the two was so strong and overwhelming that I had to express it somehow," he was quoted as saying to the Atlantic Cities. So he created a photo project he calls “Merge”.

Through the use of Photoshop, Petro took the photographs he had of the two sites, matched their perspective points and lens angles, then put them together. And he's been surprised by the reaction. "After showing the images, most of the people who haven't been in either place thought it was real," he said. "They began questioning me where it is. I didn't expect that for sure."