Anna Devís and Daniel Rueda are a photography duo from Valencia, Spain, known for turning ordinary architecture into visual jokes. Their method is easy to recognise: a clean wall, a strong colour or pattern, and one small human figure, usually one of them, posed so that the building and the person complete each other. A pair of round windows becomes a pair of eyes, a stripe becomes a slide, a colour block swallows a matching dress.
Their square, carefully balanced images found a large audience on Instagram, where they post as @anniset (Anna) and @drcuerda (Daniel). They have since worked with brands and camera makers, including as Hasselblad ambassadors, and published a book of their work called Happytecture. The selection below, from images the pair shared online and that sites such as deMilked later featured, shows how many different ideas they draw from walls, stairs and pavements in cities across Spain and beyond. Each caption explains what is happening in the frame and the trick that makes it work.
How the pair build a picture
Most of their photos start with the building, not the pose. They look for facades with a single strong idea: repetition, symmetry, an odd window, a bold colour. Then they plan clothes and props, often an umbrella, a balloon or a coloured skirt, to match or contrast with that idea. Because the person is small in the frame, the pose has to be readable at a glance, which is why so many of the images feel like a single-line joke.
The pictures are composed with straight lines and level horizons, which usually means a tripod, a remote or self-timer, and many attempts. The result looks effortless precisely because the messy parts, traffic, bystanders, crooked angles, have been waited out or cropped away.
The photographs
Two round portholes in a pale stone facade become eyes, and Anna's red pleated skirt, held out wide, completes the face as a grin. Seeing faces in buildings is called pareidolia, and the duo return to it often because it turns a plain wall into a character.
A white wall pierced by rows of diamond-shaped vents reads like falling rain once a figure with a black umbrella stands beneath it. The umbrella's dark canopy also echoes the small dark diamonds, tying the person to the pattern.
The wall splits into black above and white below, and the outfit reverses it: white top, black skirt. A single white balloon floats against the dark half, the only round shape in a grid of rectangular blocks.
Shot from above, a pedestrian crossing turns into a backdrop. A figure lies across the white stripes in a grey jumper and white skirt, matching the road's two colours. Pictures like this need a closed or quiet street, and a lot of patience.
Blue zigzag bands run across a cream brick wall, and Daniel leans at exactly the same angle as the stripes. The tilted pose makes the static facade look as if it is moving.
A yellow dress in front of a yellow painted rectangle makes the body almost disappear into the wall. Colour matching between clothing and architecture is one of the pair's signature tricks.
Red and pale-blue cladding panels form a shape like a bar chart. A tiny figure with a red umbrella stands under the lowest red column, so the colour seems to drip down onto her.
A pale blue facade is scattered with windows of many different sizes. The small figure by the door gives the scale, and her slightly playful pose suggests she is the one who arranged the windows.
Pink and red fluted panels frame a leap with a red umbrella, a nod to the classic image of being carried off by an umbrella. The jump was most likely repeated many times to get the legs and umbrella in the right shape.
The pastel stairs and walls of La Muralla Roja in Calpe, Spain, designed by Ricardo Bofill and completed in 1973, are a favourite with architectural photographers. Here a figure in dark clothing waves from a narrow window high in the blue wall.
Looking straight up a spiral stairwell turns gold-coloured walls and rings of railings into a tunnel. A figure lies spread out on the top landing, placed at the exact centre of the circles.
White concrete ribs curve away in a long row, in a style that recalls the work of Santiago Calatrava in Valencia, the pair's home city. A figure leans into the curve of one rib as if holding the whole structure up.
A sequence of white frames creates depth, and a figure leaps through the middle with an umbrella. Frame-within-frame compositions guide the eye straight to the person.
Black stepped lines and a dark grid create a strong graphic pattern. A man reclines along the top line with his hands behind his head, as if the geometry were a deckchair; the true orientation of the scene is left deliberately unclear.
A white perforated wall, dotted with small holes in a random pattern, looks like a sheet of rain. A black umbrella turns the abstract surface into weather.
Seen from above, the maze-like red walls of La Muralla Roja stand out against a calm Mediterranean and a pale sky. A tiny figure on the roof terraces gives a sense of how vast and labyrinthine Bofill's building is.
Nested wooden door frames recede into the distance, and a figure dressed in black strikes a dance pose in the last one. The symmetry is so exact that the person becomes the vanishing point.
A pink, orange and turquoise facade looks like a dolls' house, and a figure stretches up to a small blue door. Bright, flat colours like these are why the pair often seek out pastel buildings in southern Europe.
A grey concrete wall with diagonal slats sets a strict rhythm, and a seated figure with a traffic cone over the head breaks it with humour. The orange cone is the only strong colour in the frame.
Photographed from above, a stair with a spiral end and a patterned floor becomes a stage for a pretend fall. The figure lies across the steps upside down, so viewers have to rotate the scene in their heads.
Organic, tooth-like cut-outs in a white wall dwarf a traveller pulling a suitcase. The empty space above makes the shapes feel almost like a creature about to bite.
A green facade with two round windows and a row of vertical grilles looks like a face with a mouthful of teeth. A man in white looks up at it, as if surprised to be watched by a building.
Why these images work
The appeal comes from three simple ingredients. First, reduction: everything that does not support the idea is left out, so the eye goes straight to the joke. Second, scale: a small figure against a large wall makes the architecture feel monumental and the human feel playful. Third, a story: the pose suggests that the person and the building are interacting, even though the building is simply standing there.
Their work also reflects a wider interest in what is sometimes called minimal or architectural street photography, where facades are treated as graphic shapes rather than as places to live or work. Buildings like Ricardo Bofill's La Muralla Roja have become pilgrimage sites for this style, even though the complex is private housing and its interior is closed to visitors.
Trying the style yourself
- Find one idea per wall. Look for repetition, symmetry, a single colour or a shape that resembles something else.
- Dress for the building. Match the colour to make the body blend in, or contrast it to make the figure pop.
- Stand square to the facade. Shooting straight on keeps lines parallel; a tripod and a remote help.
- Keep the figure small. Leave plenty of empty wall so the scale tells the story.
- Be considerate. Many striking facades are homes or workplaces, so avoid blocking entrances and ask permission on private property.
To see more, follow both photographers on Instagram or look for Happytecture, which collects many of their best-known images.
Sources: deMilked: Daniel Rueda and Anna Devís's architecture photography (2019 feature); Anna Devís on Instagram; Daniel Rueda on Instagram; Hasselblad: Anna and Daniel, ambassadors; Counter-Print: Happytecture; Wikipedia: La Muralla Roja. All photos: Anna Devís and Daniel Rueda.
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