13Collections
A Spatial Archive of Monochrome Images Across Art, Culture, and Technology
13Collections began with a simple idea: that a photograph continues to act long after the shutter closes. Over time, this became a living archive of monochrome observations collected across continents, an exploration of silence, rhythm, and the quiet architecture of space. Each volume of thirteen images reflects a dialogue between intention and environment, revealing how even the smallest visual gesture can influence atmosphere and shape perception. Developed through PhyXels, 13Collections evolves into an art–culture–tech system that studies how images inhabit space, travel through it, and subtly alter the way we feel within it.
Built through years of travel, curation, and quiet observation, the archive brings together volumes of thirteen monochrome photographs shaped not only by place, but by an underlying framework that studies how images behave within space. Each work functions less as a static record and more as a subtle agent guiding perception, influencing atmosphere, and reflecting patterns that emerge only through long-term archival thinking and computational insight. This combination of visual intuition and structured analysis allows the project to evolve beyond traditional photography into an ongoing exploration of spatial mood, rhythm, and meaning.
Research Foundation
The development of 13Collections is grounded in a research-led framework shaped within PhyXels. The project draws from visual culture, spatial perception, and cultural heuristics that describe balance, orientation, and flow. These foundations help reveal how monochrome images influence atmosphere and how they behave within physical or virtual environments.
Emerging technologies such as blockchain, metaverse environments, and AI further extend this inquiry. Blockchain supports the integrity and traceability of the archive, while metaverse spaces offer new ways for viewers to experience photographs as spatial elements. AI contributes additional insight by identifying patterns and relationships within the work that may otherwise remain hidden. Together, these tools allow 13Collections to evolve beyond traditional photography into an expanded art–culture–tech system.
The Catalogue Volumes
Behind 13Collections is a research-led framework developed within PhyXels. The project draws from ideas in visual culture, spatial perception, and cultural heuristics that describe balance, orientation, and flow. These foundations help reveal how monochrome images interact with surrounding space and how they contribute to ambience, harmony, and meaning. Emerging computational methods further support this exploration by identifying patterns within the archive that are not immediately visible to the eye.
This podcast was created with AI to bring 13Collections into a different form of storytelling. It offers a brief narrative about the photographs, reflecting on the journeys, places, and thoughts behind the works. Listeners can experience the collection not only visually but also through an interpretive audio perspective before exploring the gallery further.
Virtual Gallery
The Virtual Gallery is an immersive environment where 13Collections can be experienced as spatial compositions rather than static images. Designed as a multi-room structure connected through transitions, it acts as a living studio and a space where viewers, collectors, and collaborators can explore how each photograph occupies a room, alters atmosphere, and interacts with architectural context.
This environment also functions as a co-creation platform. Clients can test artworks within tailored interior settings, experiment with placement and scale, and participate in real-time consultation sessions inside the gallery itself. It serves additionally as an educational space for group talks and student tours, extending the project into a virtual, experiential dimension that mirrors its core interest in how images inhabit and influence space.
A fun fact: visitors may occasionally bump into Julius and his team working inside the gallery, turning each visit into a chance encounter. Visit the VR.Gallery
Origin
"Ruelles" a Monograph by Julius Yls
The early foundation of 13Collections began with Ruelles, a black-and-white monograph created in 2020 and now sold out in print. The series turned its attention to France’s alleys and backstreets, interstitial spaces that cities seldom celebrate, yet carry a quiet tension between intimacy and monumentality. Through these overlooked environments, Ruelles explored spatial ambiguity, narrative through absence, and the subtle emotional pull of architecture, establishing themes that would later define the broader 13Collections framework.
Developed over several years and shaped through a disciplined archival process, Ruelles emphasised the importance of curation, rhythm, and the way images mature through repeated viewing. This approach evolved into the thirteen-image structure of 13Collections, marking the first step toward understanding photographs not as static records, but as spatial agents capable of influencing atmosphere and shaping how viewers perceive and navigate a space.
Reviews
"And everything in-between." - Silvia Valentino, Theatre Artist. Sofia, Bulgaria.
With only two exceptions, all the compositions in this collection are vertical, seemingly from the same vantage point. Yet they open so many different windows to streets and alleys that touch the viewer in a welcoming and comforting way. The skillful use of camera angles, light and framing, coupled with the child-like wonderment of their author, make these images so familiar, yet new. Cafés, corner shops, cobble streets, flower pots, bikes, shadows and lights cast on white-washed walls, so typical for the French town style, draw us in with their unmistakable allure and leave us with a sense of mystery. Time itself is captured here in the Black, White and Things which comprise the three sections of Julius Yls' book, and he manages to do it with so much warmth and gentle curiosity. The final two compositions, which are the only horizontal frames in the collection, open a much wider angle and reveal the true spirit of these streets the people, the musicians, the passers-by and leave us with the desire to return and revisit, unable to say good-bye.
"A pair of good eyes that can 'see' " - Dr. Kok Cheow Yeoh, Typography Artist. Alabama, USA.
Let's face it... without a pair of good eyes that can 'see' a great composition, it doesn't matter how expensive the camera equipment is. Julius has not only seen a visual narrative in black and white, but he has also captured every nook and cranny through an interplay of subtle and strong contrast. Despite his images suggesting a very subdued and quiet atmosphere, they are buzzing with a cacophony of intricate architectural details. I've spent a lot of time looking and studying the incredible amount of details captured in his photographs. I totally enjoyed every single one of them.
"Finely balancing a sense of the monolithic with pure empty space" - Julian Stone, Senior Visual Designer. Manchester, UK.
When producing a series, it's really difficult to produce a coherent aesthetic without becoming repetitive, but Julius manages to intrigue and delight with each shot, and keep his creative integrity intact. This work represents stolen moments of tranquility where architectural forms reveal their secret conversation with light and shadow. Architectural form is exquisitely modeled to give a full sense of volume and mass, whilst retaining the delicate shimmer of morning light, or the subtle veils of evening shadow. Julius manages to walk a tightrope, finely balancing a sense of the monolithic with pure empty space. Despite the subject matter, these enclosures never feel claustrophobic. There is a sense of a moment, of pregnant pauses, and revelation. I'm reminded of the 'empty stage-sets' of the painter Giorgio de Chirico. These images invite similar metaphysical contemplation. Julius has condensed his skill and patience into a photographic expression of enduring quality. I know you'll enjoy his work as much as I have.
Awards
and recognitions
Julius Yls’s photographic work has been recognised internationally, including publication by National Geographic, a 2nd Place award in the Travel Photographer of the Year competition, and features across global media such as CNN and BBC. His images have also been exhibited at Paris Photo (Grand Palais) and published in journals including the LHSA Viewfinder Journal and L’actualité Magazine. A defining recognition came when his black-and-white work was selected for Objects in Air (University of Chicago Press), the book that later received the 2024 Gordon J. Laing Award. This inclusion positioned his photography within scholarly discourse, reflecting the deeper, spatial qualities that now underpin the 13Collections archive.
Julius Yls is a creative technologist, educator, and visual thinker whose work explores how images shape the spaces we inhabit. His practice moves between monochrome archives, spatial research, and emerging technologies, treating photography not as documentation but as a way to investigate rhythm, atmosphere, and the subtle intelligence of place.
Across projects like Ruelles and 13Collections, Julius works through long-term archival processes, computational insight, and immersive environments to understand how images behave beyond the frame. Whether teaching, building virtual galleries, or developing research within PhyXels, his approach blends artistic intuition with structured analysis, inviting viewers to experience photographs as active elements within both physical and virtual worlds.