What does “hyper” really mean? No one probably knows better than French photographer Jean-François Rauzier, who calls his works “gigantic hyper-realistic puzzles”.

An exhibition of such works has opened at the Modern Art Museum in Moscow.

In Rauzier’s trademark photographs, thousands of high-resolution close-ups constitute gigantic images of the highest definition possible. Some of them are colossal with a capital C – up to 100 metres long and even higher.

The artist often combines up to 200 shots and says no lens can provide an image of such definition. Using all the modern tricks of digital technology, Rauzier works on the images like a scientist in his state-of-the-art laboratory. Sometimes his reconstructed photos have resolution of more than 2 billion pixels. But this doesn’t mean Rauzier is ready to sacrifice quality to satisfy his Napoleonic ambitions. With an eye for detail, he cuts, moves and invents a one-of-a-kind fantasy world he shares with the public.

Jean-François Rauzier created his first hyper-photographs in 2002. Inspired by cinema and its techniques, Rauzier was keen to bring together in one shot a 180-degree view and the super-zoom “to see the panorama and the close view at once, to stop time and to have a possibility to glimpse all the details of the static image.”

The 57-year-old artist is often hailed as one of the top photographers of the world with more than 30 years of experience. His works are on display in private collections and museums around the world.

In 2008 he was honoured with the most important and prestigious award in digital photography in France – the Archimboldo Prize.