How a Photographer Makes an Exploded View of a Car

Photography Tips

Fabian Oefner is known for his melding of photography and science. The Swiss artist has photographed ferroliquid combined with watercolors. He’s captured paint responding to centrifugal force and tiny colored crystals reacting to the vibrations of sound. Now watch how he created the illusion of an exploding car piece by piece:

Oefner first sketched out the exploding car concept, which determined where each piece should be positioned to create a realistic-looking image. He then carefully dismantled a model car, using a saw on some parts and tweezers to pry apart the smallest components.

Using the sketch, he photographed each piece of the car in the predetermined position, utilizing a white background and white boxes to set the correct perspective. He repeated this process for each miniature component of the model car, meticulously positioning each piece and photographing it.

During post processing, Oefner finished off his project by combining all of his photographs. It took him three weeks to complete the final photograph once the initial sketch was drawn. He called the final image Disintegrating No. 3.