From fashion models on the front cover of Vogue boasting cheek bones to die for, to painstakingly accurate dual skyscrapers the mirror image of one another, symmetry has long been regarded as being the symbol of beauty and even success.

In a series of abstract architectural images, artist Paul Cook challenges our perception of how symmetry contests the way a shape is perceived. Through digital photographs of architecture, trees, bones and animals, Paul Cook explores symmetry as a universal aesthetic.

From May 1 – 31 2011, Paul Cook’s Parallel Universal exhibition will be showing as part of the 2011 Contact photography Festival in the city of Toronto. This annual photographic exhibition features many unique and exciting exhibitions which explore the relationship between the figure and the ground as well as interventions in the urban landscape.

Each year the Contact Photography Festival announces a theme that is to run throughout the work displayed, and this year the festival is focusing on the world’s relationship with the environment, which has been titled Figure & Ground.

From classic portraits of a figure on a landscape to critical perceptions of a landscape altered significantly by human intervention, Figure & Ground will focus on how photographic images change perception, expose meaning and enlighten knowledge.

A total of 37 featured exhibitions will make up the Contact Photography Festival, held at diverse venues throughout Toronto. With such an extensive range of exhibitions, this year’s Contact Festival aims to reinforce the importance of art and the significance of artists and how their work communicates within civilization.

According to the Contact website, in its simplest form, the theme Figure and Ground asks: “What is our relationship to the environment? Looking at the photographs presented throughout the festival, we find many complex answers.”

Complex answers will certainly be explored and found in photographer Paul cook’s Parallel Universe exhibition.

By manipulating photographs and challenging conventional perceptions of symmetry, Paul Cook will also challenge our acuities of originality, investigating balance and equilibrium as a holistic aesthetic.

For more information on the Contact Photography Festival 2011 and its exhibitors click HERE.