There’s an unexpected allure in Alastair Philip Wiper’s photography, where beauty emerges from the most utilitarian environments. His images of factories, laboratories, and industrial facilities reveal symmetry, texture, and color often hidden beneath their functional surfaces. Alastair doesn’t glamorize these spaces; instead, he brings out their innate aesthetics, uncovering an unexpected elegance in places many overlook.
For more than 12 years, the British photographer has traversed the globe, capturing everything from wind tunnels and shoe-testing machines to razor blade factories and sex doll production lines. His work elevates industrial photography beyond mere documentation, blending precision with a playful eye for composition.
Drawing inspiration from fashion photographers like Jean-Paul Goude and Guy Bourdain, Alastair approaches his industrial subjects with a bold, creative vision. His use of sharp lines, symmetry, and dynamic compositions turns functional settings into striking visual narratives. Through his lens, factories and laboratories become captivating, complex environments that challenge viewers to rethink their relationship with the objects and systems shaping modern life. Alastair recently went behind the scenes at Nike’s headquarters in Oregon, photographing never-before-seen areas like the archives and research departments. These exclusive images will be featured in the upcoming exhibition Nike: Form Follows Motion at the Vitra Design Museum, opening on September 21, 2024.
As part of our Through the Lens series, Hypeart caught up with Alastair to discuss his creative process, his fascination with industrial settings, and his latest book, BUILDING STORIES, which spotlights a special collection of his architectural photography.
"I was super into film and music and art, but had never thought about doing anything with it."
Where are you currently based, and what’s your studio like?
I’m based in Copenhagen - I’ve been here for 20 years. My studio is right in the center - I would call it a curated mess. Just the right amount of mess! It is pretty small, big enough to do still-life shoots but you wouldn’t get a car in there. And I have a lot of images left over from exhibitions scattered all over the place so it is also my storage at the same time.
Can you share your creative upbringing? Were you introduced to photography early on, and what's your fondest childhood memory related to it?
I don’t really have a creative upbringing. I studied philosophy with politics at university, and after that I traveled a bit, I was a ski bum, I worked as a chef while traveling as I was into food and could cook, and did a lot of other shitty jobs as well. But I never thought about doing anything creative - I was super into film and music and art, but had never thought about doing anything with it. I ended up in Copenhagen, and out of the blue one day I decided it would be fun to design some tee shirts. I had never done anything like that, but I sold them quickly and taught myself to use photoshop and illustrator, and that was the beginning of my creative life. I was 27.
I don’t have any strong childhood photography memories - just holiday snaps. My mum kept amazing albums full of our lives, which I am really bad at doing and have a constant bad conscience about - I’ll get to it one day. My grandfather was a keen amateur photographer, and when I got into photography I found a box of his old camera gear and started using it, so I guess that is the closest it comes to being in the blood.
What inspired your focus on architecture, industry, and science in photography?
I was working as a graphic designer for an artist and designer called Henrik Vibskov in the late 00’s, and they didn’t have a house photographer, so I picked up a camera and began to shoot all the lookbooks and shows. I got hooked on photography, built a darkroom in my apartment, bought loads of old cameras, and experimented a lot. When I decided I wanted to go full-time as a photographer, I knew I needed a niche - what kind of photographer was I going to be? I wanted to travel the world, see exciting things, and hopefully get paid well. I stumbled across the work of a couple of old industrial photographers who were working in the 50’s and 60’s - Maurice Broomfield and Wolfagng Seivers. When I saw their work it was a lightbulb moment, I knew that was what I wanted to do, so I just went full steam ahead trying to blag my way into anywhere that would let me in and build up a portfolio.
Have you explored other photography genres? What led you to shift focus to your current themes?
I started out photographing fashion, but got bored pretty quickly. Then I got really into grainy, scratchy black and white film photography and street photography, but after a while I realized I was never going to make a living doing that. So when I discovered the industrial stuff I could just see a whole life in front of me, traveling the world, seeing amazing things that others don’t get to see, and learning loads of interesting stuff.
Where do you find inspiration? Any photographers or outlets you frequently revisit?
Right at the beginning I was looking at what other industrial photographers were doing, but I realized I needed to find my own voice so I pretty much stopped looking at that. I realized I wanted to bring color, life and humor into these places - a sense of fantasy. Visually I have been very into fashion photographers like Jean-Paul Goude (most famous for doing all the iconic Grace Jones album covers) and Guy Bourdain, who just use the boldest colors and compositions to make something sexy and weird. I also read quite a lot, and Roald Dahl (who wrote a lot of great adult fiction as well as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and H.G. Wells are a constant inspiration. If I can somehow mix those universes with my industrial subject matter then I’ll be happy.
Your framing is symmetrical and clean. What techniques help you achieve that compositional precision?
Nothing special - just placing the tripod in the right spot, making small millimeter adjustments until it is just right. Knowing where to place the tripod comes fairly intuitively.
"Some places you would think would be hard to access are surprisingly easy."
How challenging is it to access highly restricted spaces, like nuclear fallout shelters or sex doll workshops, for your shoots?
Some places are surprisingly hard, some surprisingly easy. Now that I have a pretty good CV it makes places take me more seriously when I approach them. Some places you would think would be hard to access are surprisingly easy - such as CERN, or the National Ignition Facility. They are publicly funded and have a responsibility to show the world what they do with taxpayers money, so if you can show you are a serious member of the press then they will take your request seriously. Companies are more difficult - they have less reason to let me in. There is a chocolate factory on the outskirts of Copenhagen I have been trying to access for years, but they are having none of it.
What has been your most challenging project? How did it compare to others in terms of difficulty?
Most of my shoots go fairly smoothly. I often don’t know what I’m going to get until I get there, and I am used to working in that way, so the biggest risk is that a place just wasn’t as exciting as I hoped it would be. The hardest shoot I have had was probably a shoot for Google on a wind farm in the middle of the North Sea. We had hired a very special boat that is used for windmill maintenance to take as out there, a couple of hours from the coast, it cost a fortune. We were quite a big crew, with video, drone etc. It was pretty tough for all of us trying to work while the boat was rocking in the north sea waves, and then my videographer got really seasick. He started puking everywhere, then lying on the floor groaning. The captain said it was so serious we had to take him back to land, refuel, and head out again. We hadn’t really started yet and I wasn’t sure if we would make it back before sunset, so it was a race against the clock, it took so long, we had to pay for all the fuel, it was super stressful but we made it back and managed to get epic shots as the sun went down.
"These days I shoot with a Fuji GFX 100s and zoom lenses."
What’s your go-to photography gear? Any favorite camera, lens, or settings?
These days I shoot with a Fuji GFX 100s and zoom lenses. This camera is a game changer - 100 megapixel medium format in a small robust body that aslo does great video. You used to have to pay the price of a BMW to get a Phase One or Hasselblad with similar specs and a much less user-friendly camera. I use zooms because I hate changing lenses on the fly and the quality is more than acceptable for me. I use a whole load of different settings depending on whether I am shooting with flash or just with a tripod or a combination.
You've worked with brands like Nike and Adidas. What attracts you to certain brands over others for commercial projects?
It’s always great to work with brands that take pride in producing high quality visuals, so that I know that they will get the most out of the pictures. I’m fortunate enough that I usually get hired to do my thing, with little creative direction, so I am always happy when I am hired because they want me rather than just because they need any old photographer. That said, I love it when creative directors challenge me to do something in a way I’m not used to doing it - they can see it will work with my style - and I get to try something new. I always like to be challenged, I don’t want it all to be too easy.
After working behind the scenes with industry giants like Google, the ESA, and others, have you ever felt conflicted or experienced any reservations about your work? Do you approach these projects differently compared to your personal work?
I’ve never felt conflicted about this, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I approach all my projects in the same way - of course there are times when the client has specific wishes, but this very rarely goes against what I would like to do. I really enjoy commercial projects - I like the energy, I like having a bigger crew, it is very satisfying to be paid well because you are very skilled at something. And I think I learn things on commercial shoots that feed into my personal work. I love the mix - I don’t know how happy I would be working solely as an artist, producing work that nobody has asked for. Working commercially allows me to relax more with my personal work. A lot of the time commercial projects get me access to places there is no way I could get on my own ( for instance Google data centers are some of the most secure places in the world, they won’t let anyone in there, especially not with a camera, laptop and hard drive) and I almost always have the right to use my commercial images in my personal projects, so it works well in that sense.
Tell us about your latest book, BUILDING STORIES. What subjects does it explore?
Building Stories is a collection of my building photography shot around the world over the last decade. All the images have a very special atmosphere, something macabre, like a murder might be about to happen, and I imagine the buildings having their own personalities. From the childhood home of Steve Jobs, to the toilet of a deceased Albanian dictator, to secret government laboratories working on nuclear weapons. You can get it, as well as my other books and prints, here: https://alastairphilipwiper.com/shop
What are your thoughts on contemporary photography? Any advice for emerging photographers?
It’s going to be really interesting to see what happens with AI over the next few years, when it moves beyond people making funny stuff. I’m sure it will be good for some and bad for others. I’m broadly optimistic.
My advice to emerging photographers is to always pursue subjects you are interested in, and the photography will follow. Being a photographer is an amazing way to learn about the world, you can just pick any subject you are interested in, and have an excuse to deep dive into it or just a shallow dive. Making good connections takes time, years, it’s a long slow process but it’s worth it to do something you enjoy for a living.
What projects are you working on now, and where can our readers find more information?
I have a few things coming up - I’ve just been over in Oregon, photographing behind the scenes at the headquarters of NIke - the archives, the research and development departments, places that no photographer has ever been. The images will be part of the exhibition “Nike: Form Follows Motion” which opens at the Vitra Design Museum on 21st September.
I’m also working on a couple of long term projects. The first is called “How We Learned to Stop Worrying” (named after that Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove) - it is about the many interpretations of the word nuclear, from weapons, to energy, to culture and medicine. I’m also working on a project about Flesh that looks at birth, death, slaughterhouses, medical procedures and anything else to do with flesh. I have no idea when either of them will be finished. You can find out more at my site and my insta.
All photos courtesy of Alastair Philip Wiper for Hypeart.
