Paperboyo Rich McCor Turns Landmarks into Playful Cutout Illusions

Brighton-based artist and photographer Rich McCor, known online as Paperboyo, creates playful optical illusions by holding hand-cut black paper silhouettes against famous landmarks and photographing them. His analog process involves dreaming up a silhouette, tracing and cutting it by hand, then finding the perfect angle where a building transforms into something else: the London Eye becomes a bicycle wheel, the Arc de Triomphe turns into a LEGO figure, Big Ben becomes a wristwatch. Minimal Photoshop is used. McCor began the project in 2015 as an excuse to explore London, and it has since grown into a global adventure taking him to the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and beyond. He published a book, "Around the World in Cut Outs," translated into multiple languages. With over half a million followers, Paperboyo is a rare Instagram creator whose work feels consistently fresh. He also experiments with GIFs and motion to add humor.