while there are technologies out there that can afford artists and photographers opportunity to create mind-boggling photography techniques and effects, but there are none that can capture exploded view of a complex object such as a car, without the aid of CGI. however, Swiss photographer and artist Fabian Oefner succeed in doing the aforementioned in his Disintegrating series of exploded car photographs, which are described as “possibly the slowest high-speed images ever taken.” well, almost. the thing is, the car in the image (as with the rest in the series) you see above did not literally explode and they are not real cars either; they so model cars, which means car buffs can breathe a sigh of relief that no classic wheeled beauties were destroyed in the process, though we can’t say the same for model car enthusiasts. hey, you can’t please everyone, can you?
anyway, what you witnessed here is the result of a painstaking process that involved taking apart the model car and photographing each individual piece either in suspended or propped position at their respective spot. these photos, which amounts to hundreds if not thousands, are then put together to create the illusion of a car exploding. as part of the process, Oefner even went to the extend of sketching out how the scene would play out (a storyboard of sort, if you will) in detail, which he would then use as a guide when he went about executing the shoot. all told, it took Oefner almost two months just to create one image – the the disassembly of the car alone could take more than a day and that was a car we are talking about. so it is not just photography skills involved; it takes a huge amount of imagination and a whole lot of patience to result in these awe-inspiring and surreal work of art.
you can learn more about Fabian Oefner’s Disintegrating at MB&F Mechanical Art Devices Gallery (aka M.A.D. Gallery), or hit up Fabian’s website to discover his other awesome projects. before you go, here’s a piece of good news for art aficionados out there: you can actually buy the Disintegrating prints of size 120 cm by 70 cm (about 47″ by 28″) for 1,900 Swiss Franc each, or about US$2,106, according to the current going rate. another thing to note is, these prints are not going to stay on the shelves forever, as they are limited to just 25 prints per image. so as always, if you want one then you better act fast.
