Making the ordinary extraordinary: Photographer romanticizes abandoned desert buildings by giving them an injection of

Los Angeles-based artist Ed Freeman has been breathing new life into long-forgotten, dilapidated structures dotting lonely desert highways.

In an award-winning series called Desert Reality, Freeman captured more than a dozen abandoned buildings in the California desert, which in his works appear both haunting and full of vitality thanks to the over-saturated colors.  

‘All have been manipulated to enhance and ennoble these very ordinary structures that might otherwise go unnoticed and unappreciated,’ he explained.

The large format, saturated color prints are an uncanny amalgam of straight photography and seamless computer manipulation.

As part of the editing process, Freeman scrupulously retouched and enhanced images of the decaying edifices, including long-shuttered cafes, peeling fast food joints, auto parts shops and bodegas.

He then stripped the backgrounds out and replaced with flawless surroundings and perfectly matching skies: Stormy, overcast, dotted with puffy clouds or intense blue.

The resultant, hyper-real images straddle believability and fantasy, going from unflinching documentary and dreamlike perfection.

Startling contrast: Los Angeles-based artist Ed Freeman captured more than a dozen abandoned buildings in the California desert

Magical transformation: The artist manipulated the pictures of the decaying buildings to ennoble then and make them appreciated again

Signs of decay: Thanks to seamless editing, Freeman transformed this peeling, blighted gas station into a monument of beauty

Unlikely beauty: Freeman retouched and enhanced images of the decaying edifices, including this tiny shuttered church in the desert

Captivating: The saturated color prints are an uncanny mix of straight photography and seamless computer manipulation

Haunting ambiance: The backgrounds have been stripped out and replaced with perfectly matching skies: stormy, overcast, dotted with puffy clouds or intense blue

Blight and grace: Freeman's building takes on a fantasy quality, rising from the desert against the background of a stormy sky

Primary colors: The combination yellow, red and blue in this image of a long-closed hot dog eatery creates a surreal effect

Decline and revival: This abandoned brick building covered with graffiti appears transformed when juxtaposed with stormy clouds

Second chances: The saturated colors in the photos turn previously unnoticed, forgotten structures into something new and fascinating

Vibrant: The azure of the sky behind the closed Food Mart grocery store in the California desert conveys hyper-real intensity

Clean lines: While the rundown whitewashed structure appears unassuming, it takes on a poetic feel when combined with the breathtaking sky

All shapes and sizes: From a desert bar, left, to a big-box store, Freeman beautifies the buildings using colors and perfect chosen backgrounds

The storage units with bright-red shutters against the aquamarine sky look both dreamlike and hyper-real