Erik Johansson is a professional photographer and retoucher. He's also got a surrealist streak, and the collision between his passion and his skillset has yielded unbelievable images like these:

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Not all of his images are Escher-esque. A good chunk of his work eschews rotational symmetry for pure surrealism:

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Those of you with rendering skills might think "Well, big deal, I could whip those up." But Johansson actually captures all of the constituent parts of these images in-camera, then stitches them together. Take a look at this final image, for instance:

Enter a caption (optional)

Now take a look at what went into creating it:

Putting in hours like that, it's no wonder that Johansson only produces six to eight images (excluding contract work) per year!

See more of his shots here, and more behind-the-scenes videos here.