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The Ecstasy of Exploding Expensive Racecars

Fabian Oefner calls his new photograph series, "possibly the ‘slowest high-speed’ images ever captured."
Fabian Oefner, Disintegrating 08, 2016. Images courtesy the artist

High-end racecars' guts get exposed in Fabian Oefner's explosive latest work via Dubai's M.A.D. Gallery, a series called Disintegrating II. To create the physics-defying effects of the surreal explosions, Oefner individually photographed each nut, bolt, and spark plug that goes into one of these vehicles, then composited them into a photograph with the car's body. The result is designed to look like it was captured at once by a high-speed camera, but each image took months to create.

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“These are possibly the ‘slowest high-speed’ images ever captured,” says Oefner. “It took almost two months to create an image that looks as if it was captured in a fraction of a second. The whole disassembly in itself took more than a day for each car due to the complexity of the models."

Disintegrating II is the sequel to Oefner's 2013 series Disintegrating, adding five new cars. For you car buffs, the models are an Auto Union Type C (1936-1937) (Disintegrating 04), Maserati 250F (1957) (Disintegrating 05), Ford GT40 (1969) (Disintegrating 06), Bugatti 57 SC (1934-1940) (Disintegrating 07), and a Porsche 956 (1982) (Disintegrating 08).

Check out Disintegrating II in the images below.

Fabian Oefner, Disintegrating 04, 2016

Fabian Oefner, Disintegrating 05, 2016

Fabian Oefner, Disintegrating 06, 2016

Fabian Oefner, Disintegrating 07, 2016

Oefner himself is very familiar with cars, lending his time-bending perception of photography not only to his Disintegrating series, but also an experiment that led him to splatter a Ferrari in neon paint and film it in slow-motion. See more of Fabian Oefner's work on his website.

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