Slow-Motion Explosions Reveal A Sports Car’s Many Parts [Video]

Fabian Oefner’s Disintegrating series features compositions of disassembled automobiles, taken over the course of weeks.

Like many artists, Fabian Oefner is fascinated with the concept of time. The Swiss photographer decided to explore this man-made construct through a series of photographs called Disintegrating, which appear to be superfast shots of a car exploding, but are actually painstakingly created stills, shot over a period of weeks.

For each photograph, Oefner began by sketching out how the final image would look. He then used model cars, took them apart and photographed each piece exactly where it would appear if the car exploded. He used styrofoam against a white background and strings of thread to suspend parts in the air and create the illusion of a burst of energy. He then combined all the images into one photograph. Oefner explained his project:

The images could be called the slowest high speed images ever captured. It took almost three weeks to create an image, that looks as if it was captured in a fraction of a second.

Oefner series explores the illusion of time, and how it can be manipulated to create a moment that never existed.

See the gallery below for more of the Disintegrating series.

Fabian Oefner

Source, images: Visual News