13 Impressionist-Inspired Images That Look Straight Out Of A Painting, Captured By This French Photographer

This is an ode to nature and its ability to renew and reinvent itself. Réhahn captured this shot of a man in a flooded ricefield. He focused on the silhouette visible in the reflected water to create the sense that the man and rice paddy are one.

This image was created by shooting the subject through heat waves, as this farmer burned her field. The resulting effect appears to be layers of glaze and paint that blur the lines between reality and the sublime.

A man seems to emerge from the waves in a wash of gentle colors. Réhahn’s series of Impressionist photos in Can Gio’s salt fields approach the effect of reflections and salt in different ways. The scattering of salt across the flooded fields creates the effect of three-dimensional texture, as the pools reflect both the workers and the sky above.

Here a woman fanning the smoke in her field seems to be rowing through a veil of clouds. The deep red tone of her clothing stands out like a splash of paint in the haze. The image is closely cropped to highlight the surreal sensation of floating.

This was shot on the salt flats in Can Gio, Vietnam. Despite the daily nature of this man’s work, there is a certain mystical element to the image. Réhahn shot the photo through a reflection in the flooded field, making the man appear to be floating in a blue sky. The striations of salt almost appear to be paint laid down with a palette knife, dotting the image like clouds.

This image embraces a surreal state. Shot in a reflection on wet sand, the blurred image of a woman walking with her baskets appears to merge with the environment... A hazy oasis on the beach.

This image Réhahn created by shooting through the heat haze and smoke. The cobalt blues and warm parchment tones give the photograph the nuance of an antique painting.

Monet painted his water garden in Giverny for nearly three decades. Réhahn captured this photograph of a woman tending to her lotus pond in the countryside in Hoi An. He focused on the reflection in the water and the oversized, almost surreal, nature of the flowers to create the sense of a zen sanctuary.

Glimpsed through the texture of a fishing net, a man appears to float in a golden glaze. The mosaic created with light and netting seems to fragment the image like a honeycomb.

This image explores the somber and melancholic colors used by Cezanne. The palette is tinted with blue and gray shadows within the viridian green. Shot through waves of heat, the movement of this elderly farmer merges with her environment. Her life is hard, working in the middle of fire and sun; barefoot in the burning fields.

A swirl of smoke and flames seems to ripple the air when seen through waves of heat. A woman works to burn the rice paddy to ash that will replenish the soil with new life. This image creates a painterly impression of the scene with softened details and heightened motion.

A woman leans into her work, fanning flames in a rice field after the harvest. The ash will sink into the soil, nourishing and regenerating it for future crops. The cycle of rebirth inspired this work, drawing on the color palette of antique paintings and the freestyle of the Impressionist painters while remaining true to contemporary life in Vietnam. Seen through waves of heat, the image takes on a glaze of color and softened edges, taking away the crisp imagery that photography is known for and instead playing into the painterly quality of ages past.