20 Fantasy Photographer Artists Who Create Magical Worlds

Fantasy photography isn't your regular point-and-shoot. It differs a lot from traditional photography, as the fantasy photographer doesn't finish with a click of the camera. Instead, they create an environment that looks like it came from a dream, a fairy tale, or an old legend with photo editing. In this guide, you'll get to know the top creators who have mastered this art.

Part 1. Top 20 Fantasy Photographers You Should Follow for Inspiration

So, who are these fantasy photographers, and what do they come up with? This list takes a look at them and their work.

1. Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson, a Swedish fantasy photographer who now lives in Prague, creates illusions from the captured images. But the thing is that he doesn't just take one shot. He captures many of them from different locations and then pieces them together like a puzzle. Erik always makes sure that the lighting, angle, and perspective match his own imagination while taking the photos.

After that, he edits the borders, adds a bit of depth, experiments with colors, and mixes other photographic elements with photo manipulation until it looks like one single photo. His goal is to trick your brain for a second, so the photo is still believable even when it's not real.

2. Annie Leibovitz

Does the name ring a bell? Well, it's because Annie Leibovitz is one of the most influential and famous photographers working today, and she has been around forever. She started in the late 1960s, and in her early years, she mostly took pictures of rock stars and celebrities.

These days, Leibovitz creates fantasy photos, and her style is pretty unique. Her celebrity photographs are changed into visual stories that use dramatic lighting, realistic props, and sets so beautiful you wouldn't believe they are real. After the shots, these pictures are edited together to make everyday celebrities look like legends and myths.

3. Jovana Rikalo

Jovana Rikalo, as young as she might seem compared to other fantasy photographers, started her career in law. But in 2013, something changed, and she chose photography, which was purely due to her passion for fantasy portraits. Ever since, she's been doing it non-stop, and her work has featured in many publications like Adobe, Digital SLR Magazine, and Fearie Magazine.

She uses natural lighting to capture her subjects, and most of them are about princesses and fairies, so you ought to notice a feminine intensity. To guide others, she has shared her secrets in a special fairytale portraits course that covers her photoshoot in different locations, and also published a book, A Dream Within, with the same intention.

4. Natacha Einat

Traditional art pieces are sold and bought everywhere, but what about digital art? These days, it's about the digital spaces, and one of them is NFTs. Natacha Einat, a new-age fantasy photographer, uses these platforms to sell her own virtual art.

She captures models in nature, mostly under the moon or a dark sky, to create her base for the fantasy photo. The editing part comes next as she puts these features together and scales them up for the final image. Einat's photos have gotten so much attention that you can buy them as portraits and posters on platforms like Displate and NicheCanvas.

5. Adam Martinakis

Adam Martinakis, a Polish-Greek artist, doesn't use a camera at all to come up with fantasy photographs. He uses his experience in interior design and 3D image rendering tools to create them, so believe it or not, his work is the purest form of digital art.

He gets most of his inspiration through Sci-fi, and like Natacha, you can find his work as NFTs, too. It's obvious that Adam likes to use technology, and he motivates other artists around the world to do the same as they create their fantasy photos.

6. Nicolas Bruno

A lot of fantasy photographers use their art to create a more beautiful, colorful image of the world. But Nicolas Bruno does the opposite. He faces his own fear of sleep paralysis, and sketches his nightmares as soon as he wakes up, and then researches myths and legends around them.

Nicolas takes all of this information and hand-crafts his costumes and props for the shot, so he can capture it exactly the way he saw them. This way, after the image goes through the editing software, it shows what a person who suffers from sleep paralysis goes through..

7. Joel Robison

Fantasy Photography doesn't always have to be that serious, and Joel Robison proves it with his playful approach. He photographs himself and also real-life props like books and balloons. Then he scales up the size of his props to trick your brain into an illusion that everyday objects have come to life.

Joel does this so perfectly that his photo manipulation looks straight out of a Disney poster. His photos may seem childish, but they come with an honest invitation to his world, where he inspires others to let their imaginations run wild.

8. Anil Saxena

Fantasy photography is not that far from traditional photography, and they share a lot of similarities. Anil Saxena realized that to get into fantasy photography in the first place. He edited and retouched photos in a Darkroom before he took his skills to photo editing software and CGI, where he formed his fantasy style.

His work is about the subtlety of his edits. For Anil, if someone sees his fantasy art and doesn't pay attention to his edits, then the image is a success. But this doesn't mean his photos lack any of the crazy effects of a fantasy photograph. It's all just done smoothly with his photo editing skills.

9. Tommy Ingberg

How many times does it happen that your passions are left behind to earn a degree or do a 9-5 job? It almost happened to Tommy Ingberg, who was interested in cameras and photography ever since he was a kid. But life happened, and he left his passion for art behind to become a computer engineer.

But the skills he learnt while he took pictures and experimented with his camera never went away. In his twenties, he picked up photography again as a form of therapy and never stopped. He likes to make black & white portraits that take little editing, as he prefers to put more effort into the camera work. Tommy's way works, and the proof is that these photos have earned him more than 30 awards.

10. Anya Anti

Social Media platforms are a great resource to learn new things in life, and Anya Anti actually figured out how to create fantasy art through these public forums. Now, she uses her skills and experience in photography to create breathtaking fantasy art.

Anya believes that the first step to take a fantasy photo is to plan the shots, which starts with a concept or an idea she sketches down. Then, she creates amazing props and sets like giant paper planes, lamps, and moons, takes them to her chosen location, and snaps a bunch of pictures. Finally, Anya refines these photos with editing software and pieces them together to create her final fantasy photograph.

11. Bella Kotak

A Photoshop class was all it took for Bella Kotak to become interested in fantasy photography. After that, she started a project where she edited one captured photo every single day for a whole year to improve her skills.

This helped her to figure out her own style, which is now the basis of her artwork. Her photos mostly begin with an idea taken from a fairy tale, which she sketches down. Then these sketches help her find the right location and props for the shoot. Once she captures the pics, Bella utilizes rich color grading to edit them exactly in the way she is known for.

If you want to witness Bella's success, you can find her fantasy work in galleries around London.

12. Luisa Azevedo

Luisa Azevedo has always been a fantasy artist. To show her love for nature, she started to post her images online at the age of 15. Sounds like an art prodigy, right? Well, that's who she is.

At the age of 27, that same love still shows itself as she clicks pictures of animals and forests, now with some surprise props like orange peels and crystals. Luisa edits these photos together in a photo editing tool to trick you into an illusion and make a believer out of you in something that's not there at all.

13. Maia Flore

Fantasy photography is mostly about the edits, but Maia Flore does things a little differently as she relies on her camera more. She starts with a basic idea, something like a dream she saw or a childhood memory, and then she searches for a location that works with that idea.

Once in that location, Maia creates the whole set with the use of appropriate props and natural light. This way, there is little to be done in editing after she completes the shoot. Maia just refines the colors a bit, and after some basic edits, her fantasy photos are ready to be shared online and displayed in museums and galleries.

14. Rosie Hardy

Photography is a hard skill to learn on your own, but Rosie Hardy, another amazing fantasy photographer, not only taught herself that, but she also had a workshop to teach others when she was just 19. Her art is simple, with a picture taken in an everyday place, like the street or a train station.

Rosie believes that a basic location helps you relate to her photos more and find real emotion in them. After the photoshoot, she edits all the pictures with vibrant colors and shadows. The final result? Beautiful artwork that you can find on ads, and also a Maroon 5 album cover.

15. Logan Zillmer

Logan Zillmer is a photographer with a film degree, which has taught him how to create sets and props that look like they are from a short film. Logan is really into cars and watches, and that's mostly what you see in his fantasy art, too.

Another thing you may notice in his photos is his choice of simple colors and strong lights, which he edits together to get a cinematic look. This unique style features in both his personal and commercial projects.

16. Gabe Tomoiga

A lot of people change their careers around, but you don't see it that much with artists. Sure, some singers take on acting roles here and there, but a painter who just picks up a camera and finds his true calling? You don't see that every day.

But Gabe Tomoiga is exactly that. He started photography at the age of 21 and never looked back. He stages simple scenes like a child sitting next to a flower that Gabe has scaled up to so it looks giant. These shots still look so refreshing that they have earned him features on sites and magazines like Vogue Italia and Art People Gallery.

17. Kirsty Mitchell

You know how artists pour their grief into their art? Well, Kirsty Mitchell is no different. When her mother died in 2008, Kirsty took 5 years to piece together her first photography project called Wonderland in her mother's memory. It was a collection of 74 pictures taken in the forests of England.

She crafted every single costume by hand and spent months on one look. The photos didn't need much editing either, because they already looked fantastic and close to fantasy.

Her work paid off, as Wonderland was a viral success. People loved her project so much that they crowdfunded it into her photobook, which is one of the most famous ones to date.

18. Katerina Plotnikova

Katerina Plotnikova is a Moscow-based fantasy photographer who takes inspiration from fairytales like Little Red Riding Hood in her artwork. The reason for the specific fairytale is that a lot of her pictures feature real animals and teen girls with red hair and freckles. They are shot together to create an unbelievable result in a safe environment with professional animal trainers.

Her every photograph is a show of trust between humans and animals, which looked so stunning that she got featured as a cover artist on the Fearie Magazine in 2004.

19. Alice Alinary

Underwater creatures are mysterious already, and Alice Alinary covers the most mythical one of them all, which is a mermaid. Her photos are captured and edited to make normal women look like a mermaid with the use of custom props and costumes.

Alice's portraits are so graceful that they beg you to question your own beliefs about what is real and what is not. Her underwater fantasy photography is truly one of a kind, so much so that she appeared in a spotlight feature on the OTSMagazine.

20. Jairo Alvarez

Jairo Alvarez is another great fantasy photographer with multiple first-place awards to his name from places like the Albero Andronico Award in 2017 and the Siena Creative Photo Awards in 2021.

How has he done this? Well, a lot of his time is spent actually planning the shots as he jots down his ideas before every photoshoot. Then he shapes materials like wood and fabric into props that tie directly to his photos and aren't just there for decoration. His photos go through a little retouching in a photo editing tool, after which they are ready to rock the world.

Part 2. Enhance Fantasy Photography Pictures with HitPaw Online Photo Enhancer

As a fantasy photographer, you are all about creating magic after you capture the shot and edit it with photo editing software. But what if you can further enhance your art in just a few clicks? Now, it's possible in HitPaw Online AI Photo Enhancer.

Here's how:

• Step 1.Open the HitPaw Online AI Photo Enhancer site, sign in, and upload your picture by clicking "Start Free Now".

  

• Step 2.Select an AI model in the left pane that best serves your purpose. For example, if you want to refine every detail and remove the noise, the General and the Denoise Models work best here. If you're going to perfect the facial features, choose the Face Model.

  

• Step 3.Now, click Process, preview the results, and click Download to save.

  

Part 3. FAQs of Fantasy Photographer

Conclusion on Fantasy Photographer

In this guide, you've discovered the best fantasy photographers who continue to inspire millions with their artwork. If you are on a road to be one, you should follow these creators and learn the tricks they use in visualizing the concept, capturing it, and refining it in post-processing.