Art often depicts an image or interpretation of what we can see. But one British artist is making some stunning images by looking much deeper than that, to what is beyond the perception of the naked eye.
Using sophisticated X-ray cameras, photographer Nick Veasey has created ghostly images that transform the appearance of objects which give us an insight into the hidden world beyond our own senses. He produces pictures that range from a dramatic image of a skeletal passenger in a car to the delicate textures of a flower or inner workings of an object.
The former London-born advertising photographer hit on the idea of using X-rays while photographing props for a television show. He was asked to take an X-ray of a cola can and was fascinated by the technique and on the same day experimented with the radiographer with other objects including the shoes he was wearing and he subsequently hooked. He realized that X-ray could produce images of profound beauty but with an honest integrity of a subject from the inside out.
"Well I was lucky it found me really, I was struggling as a regular photographer and I was asked to take an X-ray of a cola can for a breakfast TV program. They had no idea how to do it, nor did I to be honest with you," Veasey explained.
"I was at once smitten, I knew then that it was a life changing moment, that I'd never do anything else."
Veasey's studio in Kent is unlike any other artist's workspace. Inside this remote purpose built lead-lined X-ray bunker, he places flowers, insects and objects to be photographed.
"The best type of subject really is something that suits X-ray that allows you to see it in a way that you've never seen it before. I don't see the point really in X-raying something just like a glass. I'm not going to show you something you can't see with the human eye. What I want X-ray to do is to excite people and to make them appreciate the world that's around them in a new way," the photographer says.
Working with radiation radiation, safety is key but the medium also presents other limitations notably with the size of the subject but also movement and moisture. His biggest project was for United Airlines where he produced a life size 185 ft wide piece of a 777 jet. It took a year to complete and was achieved by x-raying the component parts sent periodically in containers from Boeing in the United States. The finished image on display at Logan Airport in Boston is stunning.
This project was technically challenging but Nick has also completed other large works such as a bus with skeletal passengers, a tractor and a car. But his main notion on working with subjects is to find something that will work presented in this different way. Of course he can't work with real living things which makes some of his work with skeletal images all the more intriguing.
His latest project was to work with the Humanoid Robot 'Robo Thespian'. Dealing with this life size subject means that it must be X-rayed in sections and the X-ray film produced is also life-sized. Sections of varying degrees of radiation and exposure are put together and then scanned using a drum scanner.
The resultant digital image can then be painstakingly constructed to produce the various layers and levels of the finished artwork. He hopes each piece will stimulate both aesthetic as well as intellectual interest.
Nick is passionate about his work which has now become a lifelong commitment.
"I will continue to work with X-ray. My ambition in general is to leave a legacy of the greatest collection of X-ray pictures ever created. In the short term I want to get my work into more museums so that more people get to see it. Every artist wants to get their work seen and I'm no different," he explains.
Veasey has exhibitions in the UK and Canada later this year. In the future he would love to work on more technological projects such as working with a military vehicle or even an Apollo Space capsule.