Pics of Exploding Flowers, From a Master of High-Speed Photography

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  • Düsseldorf-based photographer Martin Klimas creates stunning images by destroying beautiful subjects. Photo: Martin Klimas
  When photographer Martin Klimas talks about shooting a subject, he often means it literally. He’s made art by firing steel balls at vases, smashing ceramic figurines on a concrete floor, and in his most recent series, making freeze-dried blooms go boom.
  The flowers in this series of photographs were dipped in liquid nitrogen then subjected to a blast from an air cannon. The pictures capture the former flowers in the split second before the percussive pruning transformed them into a pile of shattered petals on the photo studio floor.
  Most photographers look to models or locations for inspiration, but Klimas starts his creative process by leafing through scientific journals. The publications he favors tend to be fifty to a hundred years old, a time when when the experiments and lab equipment were more approachable. “I try to extract the poetic aspects of these scientific techniques,” he says. “And generate powerful images by redoing these experiments using modern photography equipment and professional lightning.”
  With the seed of an idea planted, Klimas allows the concept to grow in his Düsseldorf studio, which balances the rigor of a lab workbench with the creative chaos of an art studio. He’ll often develop specialized photo equipment for his projects. The series of shattered ceramic figurines was captured by rigging a camera to fire when an audio sensor detected a crashing sound. His majestic photos of birds are actually glorified selfies—a specialized light sensor snapped a pic whenever motion was detected near a tree-mounted camera. And photos of dancing paint were gathered by pouring liquid pigments onto an exposed stereo subwoofer enclosed in a custom plexiglass box. The fruits of Klimas’s labor are often violent vignettes, but they can only be captured in a controlled and orderly environment. “I often use scientific processes to create new photographs,” he says. “Because there’s a good chance to find hidden imagery.”