09 • THE ARTIST

Fabian Oefner

When I started to think about who to a p p r o a c h for this issue I immediately thought of Fabian Oefner and specifically his ‘Hatch’ series. It seems to sum up for me exactly the design aesthetic I was looking for with his bright red Ferrari’s just waiting to hatch from their white shells.

With the Hatch series, Fabian Oefner presents his interpretation of how cars might be ‘born’. The images show a Ferrari 250 GTO (1962) breaking out of

its white shell. Different images show one car in the process of hatching among several others yet to hatch, and with one image where it is seemingly exploding from its shell.

Fabian started by making a latex mould from the model car, which was then filled with a thin layer of gypsum to create the shell. Several dozens of these shells were made in order to complete the next step: smashing the shell onto the car to create the illusion of the vehicle breaking out. This step had to be repeated a great many times until the desired results were achieved. To capture the very moment where the shell hit the model, Fabian connected a microphone to his camera, a Hasselblad H4D, and flashes, so that every time the shell hit the surface of the car, the impulse was picked up by the microphone which then triggered the flashes and the camera shutter.

“It took two months to create an image that looks as if it was captured in a fraction of a second.”

Someone who doesn’t know and doesn’t care about how these images have been made assume it is by computer software exclusively. The way it really works is much more complex, flabbergasting and interesting!

Fabian Oefner`s work explores the boundaries between time, space and reality. He creates fictional moments and spaces, that look and feel absolutely real, yet aren’t. Through this, Oefner dissects the different components of reality and gives us a clearer understanding of how we perceive and define it.

For Fabian’s disintegrating series, (which we will show more exclusively in a future issue), he first sketches on paper where the individual pieces would go, before taking apart the model cars piece by piece, from the body shell right down to the minuscule screws. Each car contains hundreds of components.

Then, according to his initial sketch, he places each piece individually with the aid of fine needles and pieces of string. After meticulously working out the angle of each shot and establishing the right lighting, he photographs the component, and takes thousands of photographs to create each image of the series. All these individual photos were then blended together in post-production to create one single image. With the wheels acting as a reference point, each part was masked in Photoshop, cut and then pasted into the final image.

“These are possibly the ‘slowest high-speed’ images ever captured,” says Fabian. “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. But that’s a bit of a boy thing. There’s an enjoyment in the analysis, discovering

something by taking it apart, like peeling an onion.”

However, he adds: “The hardest part was actually setting up the camera, lens and light, because the biggest frustration is when you can’t get any beautiful image out of it!”

Inspired by science, Oefner`s approach to art is highly methodical and at the same time playful for unexpected moments to happen. He creates carefully orchestrated works, that are planned down to the last detail as well as pieces that use a loose framework for art to happen.

In his aforementioned and highly acclaimed ‘Disintegrating’ series, Fabian portrays performance cars that seem to blow apart. He creates these artificial moments in time by photographing every piece of the dismantled car individually and arranges them digitally into one photograph.

Spending hundreds of hours on each piece, the photographs become a hyperrealistic rendition of a moment that never existed.

In a different series, ‘Exploding Collages’, Fabian seemingly shoots through photographs and paintings, creating layered illusions of reality. Each work depicts a portrait photograph or painting being torn apart by a gunshot or an explosion. What seems to be a genuine image of an ephemeral moment is in fact just an illusion: The artist creates these works by capturing thousands of fragments of the original print and paintings and diligently arranges them into a new piece. Oefner`s meticulous precision ultimately results into a hyperrealistic illusion, that shows a real, yet non-existent moment in time.

Swiss artist Fabian Oefner has carved out his reputation by fusing the fields of art and science, creating images

appealing to heart and mind. He first intended to become a car designer but in the end, photography made a bigger impression on him.

In 2008, at 24 years-old, he got a degree in product design at FHNW in Switzerland before becoming a product photographer at Leica Geosystems.

So I asked Fabian, before leaving Leica Geosystems to set up his own studio, where did it all begin?

“When I was 14, I saw the image of Harold Edgerton with the bullet piercing an apple that fascinated me. It was taken

with a camera equipment worth half a million dollars! (Edgerton invented the high speed flash at M.I.T.)”

“Then I got my first camera, I was 15, and started investigating on how could I get such an impactful and visual effect on a low, barely existing budget.”

What is your motivation in doing what you do?

“Finding out about what surrounds us and trying to raise people’s curiosity.”

You are often compared to a scientist or an artist: which one do you prefer the most? “An artist! Scientists interpret phenomenon rationally whereas artists interpret them with emotions. I feel much more connected to art than science.”

What is the satisfaction you get at the completion of an image?

“The best thing I could hear is: “Your images inspire me in looking at things with a different eye.”

Source: Fabian Oefner & M.A.D Gallery.