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Wired Art Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT Extreme X-Rays: Photographer Nick Veasey Takes You Inside ... Everything Veasey is one of the few people who know how hard it is to get a crisp x-ray of a vacuum tube.1 For starters, the object has very little mass to absorb the radiation. And because the edges of the tube curve away from the film, the x-rays get scattered about, causing distortion. So Veasey shot this tube in a series of 10-second bursts. The succession of blasts builds up the energy necessary to capture the fine details, while their short duration keeps background radiation from clouding the picture. Not many photographers need a linear accelerator. But Nick Veasey isn't your average shutterbug. Instead of tweaking f-stops and light boxes, he fine-tunes the speed and frequency of energy pulses emitted by a Russian-made tabletop particle turbocharger. That's because Veasey doesn't work with traditional cameras and film — he works with x-rays. The 46-year-old Englishman estimates that over the past decade or so he's x-rayed more than 4,000 objects: flowers, football players, alarm clocks, tractors, even a 777. "I'm interested in how things work, and x-rays show what's happening under the surface," he says. "Plus, they look cool." To get his pictures, Veasey uses industrial x-ray machines typically employed in art restoration (to examine oil paintings), electronics manufacturing (to inspect circuit boards), and the military (to check tanks for stress fractures). Working with high doses of radiation isn't always easy. To minimize a patient's radiation exposure, medical x-ray techs grab their blurry stills in a fraction of a second; Veasey needs to bombard his subjects with ionizing radiation for as long as 12 minutes to get crisp shots. So to capture human forms, Veasey works with either skeletons in rubber suits (normally used to train radiologists) or cadavers that have been donated to science. When a corpse becomes available, he has at most eight hours to pose and shoot before rigor mortis sets in. Veasey's images have brought him fine-art commissions, big-name commercial clients, and a long list of professional honors. Now he also has a book-length collection called X-ray coming out in October. But Veasey says he's just getting started. He is currently building his own $200,000 studio with 35-inch-thick, lead-lined concrete walls. In there, he'll be able to see through anything. To assemble this office building scene, which includes everything from a potted plant to steel elevator cogs, Veasey employed all three of his x-ray machines. Each item was captured individually (he used only one skeleton "model," which he set in different poses) and then composited onto a master image. It took 200 x-rays to create the entire scene, including 26 shots just to depict the skeletons shaking hands. The largest x-ray film is only 14 inches wide, so to capture items bigger than that — like this pair of DJ decks measuring 4 feet across — Veasey stitches together several shots in Photoshop. That's also where he adds color to the black-and-white images for "technical grace." The challenge with electronics, Veasey says, is the way the chaotic interiors complicate the image. Veasey borrowed a cargo x-ray scanner normally used to search trucks crossing into the US from Mexico to create this image. Once he scanned the vehicle, Veasey used Photoshop to populate it with skeletons and objects he shot separately (yes, he x-rayed a fedora). A hospital in White Plains, New York, commissioned the piece to celebrate the opening of its new orthopedic facility. The medical center's PR team had a promotional bus wrapped in the image drive around White Plains for nearly two months. Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT Geek Ink: Comics Fans Show Off Tattoos : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com All comic book fans dig ink. Some of them just take their superhero obsessions a little further than others. Michael Boyce (left) wears his love of comics on his sleeves. A thirtysomething artist who runs On Comic Ground, a comics shop in San Diego, his arms are covered with tattoos of all the superheroines he grew up with: fightin' females like Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl and Wonder Girl. "Once I started getting one girl, I had to get 'em all," Boyce said. With flesh forever marked with the comics and sci-fi characters they know and love, geeks like Boyce would give a pack of hard-core bikers a run for their money in the tattoo department. Show us your geek tattoos Are you sporting skin art inspired by comics, sci-fi, horror or even really freaky stuff like math and physics? Send us a photo. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com Wonder Woman struts her stuff on Boyce's right bicep, but his tattoos cover both of his arms. "I want to have arms that look like comic book pages with the girls bursting out," said Boyce, who got the work done over a three-year period by Willie King Clover in Lemon Grove, California. Boyce also wears a wicked Wonder Woman belt buckle. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com When getting Venom's spider logo added to his left calf, Aaron Hamilton went with stark black ink. "I wanted something big and bold that just said, 'This is who I am. This is what I like,'" said Hamilton, 30, of Birmingham, Alabama. He says he got the tattoo done 10 years ago by Justin Kontzen of Aerochild Tattoos in Birmingham. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com Tim Burton's animated movie The Nightmare Before Christmas got Coley Suicide into tattoos. Now it's Halloween every day of the year on her arm, where "Pumpkin King" Jack Skellington, his girlfriend Sally and ghost dog Zero have taken up permanent residence. "I've always kinda been obsessed with Tim Burton," said Suicide, 20, of Long Beach, California. "I figured I'd start out with my favorite." The tattoos took 28 hours, she said, and were done by Nathan Menske in Yakima, Washington. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com Chaos Comics characters Lady Death and Purgatori face-off eternally on the back of Chris "Cybian" Kneeland, 39, of San Diego. "Everything I have (tattoo-wise) is kind of like good and evil," said Kneeland, who works as a website coder and analyst. The back piece, which was done by Bob Vessells at Funny Farm Tattoos in Los Angeles, was started five years ago, with 20 to 25 hours of needling so far, said Kneeland. He's gained some weight in the interim, and swears he'll get the piece finished when he drops the pounds. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com Images of The Thing (pictured), Image Comics' Maxx and other superheroes decorate Sean Brunle's body. The 31-year-old bartender, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, says he chose those characters because he "was physically attracted to them." The tattoos, done by Rodney Raines at Ace Custom Tattoo in Charlotte, took 15 or 20 hours to finish, Brunle said. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com X-Men badass Wolverine is another of Brunle's favorites. "They're basically hard on the outside and soft on the inside," Brunle said of the characters indelibly inked on his arms. "Strong men with good hearts, I guess." : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com "Does it ever make sense to us?" asks Jeff Walker, 27, of San Diego. The custodian wears a stark image of a dead bird with a philosophical quote from Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strip on his arm. "I've just always loved the artwork," Walker said by way of explanation. The tattoo was inked by Chris Walkin at Avalon Tattoo II in San Diego. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com Leona the lizard girl from Katherine Dunn's sideshow stunner Geek Love earned a permanent spot on one of Odette Suicide's legs, right next to a living shrine to the Virgin de Guacamole. Suicide, 27, lives in Ventura, California, and calls herself a "baker with brains." She has a bachelor's degree in psychology (and neurons tattooed on her right arm). Leona was inked in nine hours by Tim Kern at Tribulation Tattoo in New York City, she said. Nathan Kostechko did the avocado-faced Virgin. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com Steve Thompson works as a toy designer for Disney, but Sci Fi Channel's rebooted space opera Battlestar Galactica motivated him to get this skin art. He has Starbuck's tattoo on his arm, courtesy of two hours under the needle at Body Electric Tattoo in Hollywood. "I'm just a huge fan of the show," said Thompson, 34, of Los Angeles. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com Shaz Nolan wears the Dark Mark of the Death Eaters from the Harry Potter books on her left forearm. That fits nicely with the 32-year-old seamstress' cosplay role -- she dresses as Bellatrix Lestrange. When she saw the image, she couldn't live without it. "And it's fun," said Nolan, who lives in Fullerton, California. She says the tattoo took one hour at Deep Blue Tattoo in Grover Beach, California. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com "I've been a comic book fan my entire life," said Chad Bacon, 34, of Huntington Beach, California. It shows. On his right forearm, the strip-club manager sports Captain America, done by Vance O'Rourke of 723 Tattoo in Fullerton, California. Bacon's into the "whole patriotic thing," he said. Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Wasp, Spider-Man and Spawn cover other parts of his body, and for extra geek effect, he's got an image of Albert Einstein on his upper left arm. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com Steven Miller has a bold panel from a comic on his right forearm. "I just thought it was cool looking," said Miller, 27, of Los Angeles. The director of Automaton Transfusion said he is working on a movie called Ink about -- what else? -- tattoos. Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT 'Strange and Stranger' Salutes Spider-Man Artist Steve Ditko A new coffee-table book gives the reclusive comics legend his due. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:20:00 GMT Lego Tableaus Re-Create Classic Photos : Photo: Mike Stimpson Lego fanboy and amateur photographer Mike Stimpson found a way to combine his two loves: He recreates scenes from historic photographs using the plastic bricks, then snaps his own photos. The British videogame programmer first began assembling his Lego duplications in October 2007 as a way to pay homage to his favorite lensers: French street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, World War II-era shooter Robert Capa, American landscape photographer Ansel Adams. Stimpson, 34, has used Lego bricks to duplicate everything from Buzz Aldrin's first steps on the moon to '60s antiwar protesters, but he has yet to produce a plastic version of an Ansel image. "Recreating large sections of Yosemite National Park is a little beyond my skills," he said. Left: Charles Ebbets' Lunch Atop a Skyscraper served as the inspiration for Stimpson's first Lego duplication. The original was shot during construction of Rockefeller Center in 1932. To stock up for the shoot, Stimpson says he bought more than 30 Lego minifigures to ensure he'd have enough variety to imitate the men in Ebbets' photo. : Photo: Mike Stimpson Recreating Ian Bradshaw's famous 1974 photograph of streaker Michael O'Brien during a rugby match wasn't easy for Stimpson, who struggled with figuring out how to undress the stock figurine. "He's actually made up of a yellow Lego spaceman with his body on backwards so you can't see the space insignia," Stimpson said. It's one of the few recreations without a smiling mug: "I tried, but he looked too much like a woman. The face I chose seemed to fit with the 'Jesus' look of the original." : Photo: Mike Stimpson Stimpson cites Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, the celebrated 1932 image by French street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, as one of his favorites. For this blocky recreation of Cartier-Bresson's legendary snapshot of a man leaping over a puddle behind a train station, Stimpson tied a Lego figurine to a piece of thread and suspended it above a baking tray that held a few millimeters of water. Although Stimpson Photoshopped the string out, the reflection is real -- he used a foam board to help reflect the Lego man in the light. "It took a long time to get all of the elements to work together," said Stimpson. "[There was] a lot of scenery that really liked to float away!" : Photo: Mike Stimpson War photographer Robert Capa became famous in 1936 for his image of a soldier collapsing after a fatal gunshot during the Spanish Civil War. Stimpson used towels and jumpers to create the backdrop of the photograph, then added a Lego character to mimic the dying militiaman. Although nowadays Lego manufactures plastic characters with a range of facial expressions, Stimpson elected to use one with a simple smile to offset the severity of the original image. "It's a similar effect to [the] Lego versions of Darth Vader or the stormtroopers," he said. "Taking something serious and menacing, and replacing that with something cute, harmless and funny." : Photo: Mike Stimpson Stimpson special-ordered a miniature Lego firearm to complete this blocky rendition of a Pulitzer Prize-winning picture by Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams. At first, Stimpson wasn't sure how to represent the graveness captured in the 1968 image -- which shows a Viet Cong prisoner being executed -- but in the end he arranged a Lego-ized U.S. soldier and civilian on a Lego roadway and took the shot. "Some people find it funny," said Stimpson. "Some people find it a bit disturbing." : Photo: Mike Stimpson Stimpson subbed Lego figurines of an airline pilot and a nurse to stage Alfred Eisenstaedt's celebrated image of an American soldier dipping a young woman into a kiss in New York's Times Square in 1945. "This was a difficult one," said Stimpson. "Lego don't make sailor figures as far as I can tell." : Photo: Mike Stimpson Stimpson made a few modifications for this version of an iconic 1967 image showing a hippie holding a flower out to a line of armed soldiers. The original was taken by French photographer Marc Riboud at a Vietnam War protest in Washington, D.C. Stimpson swapped the antiwar activist in the image for Star Wars hero Han Solo, then used Imperial stormtroopers for his creation, dubbed Anti-Empire Protest. "My normal working practice if something doesn't work is to add more Lego stormtroopers," he said. "I think it worked." : Photo: Mike Stimpson After requests flooded Stimpson's inbox asking for a toy edition of Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, the historic 1945 image by Joe Rosenthal, he knew he had to recreate it. He hung a white sheet for the backdrop, gathered rocks and pebbles for the landscape and had custom figures made by BrickArms, a company that specializes in Lego weaponry. Stimpson even carefully printed an American flag for the Marines to plant, but forgot one detail -- the correct number of stars. "I'm English," he admitted sheepishly. "That's my excuse." : Photo: Mike Stimpson How did Stimpson reproduce American journalist Malcolm Brown's 1963 shot of Thick Quang Duc's self-immolation to protest the persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam? With an oilcan, Lego fire purchased on eBay and X-wing pilot Legos wearing red Imperial Guard capes. "It took weeks to find all those Lego flames," said Stimpson. "I was going to set a Lego figure on fire for this, but I couldn't bring myself to destroy Lego." Stimpson stuck with his decision to keep facial expressions consistent among his photographs, and said he thinks the soft smile on the burning monk's face reflects inner peace attained through Buddhism. : Photo: Mike Stimpson The reenactment of a 1969 photograph of U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon didn't require much -- just a base plate of Lego turf, a sheet of black paper to resemble space and a Lego astronaut. "Unfortunately, my '80s 'classic' spacemen were a bit too broken and chewed to use for that shot," Stimpson said. He hunted down a space-suited figure from a set, although he worried it looked too modern. Although Stimpson says he has more Lego sets and parts than he can count, he often mixes and matches parts to get the right look. The biggest challenge is finding proper Lego-ized attire for the figures in his recreations, he said. Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT Gallery: Wired.com Readers Photograph NYC Waterfalls : While New York City's summer waterfall art installation by Olafur Eliasson is impressive in its scope, its impact on observers is varied. We asked our readers to show us their take on the project by submitting their own photos. Some views are beautiful, others ordinary, but they all amount to an interesting experiment in crowdsourced photography. Click through the gallery to see our selections from the reader's submissions, all of which can be viewed on the original submissions page along with more information. Let us know what you think in the comments section. Left: Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water Submitted by Oliver Valle Photographer's comment: "Image taken from Brooklyn side. The expressway is behind and Manhattan is in front." : NYC Waterfall with Sky Submitted by JF Photographer's comment: "This shot was taken from the free ferry that takes you to see all the waterfalls. This is looking south." : Over the Falls Submitted by JSJones Photographer's comment: "My view is from above looking down to the East River. I learned how to get access to this part of the Brooklyn Bridge when I was a teenager, finally a practical use for that info." : Picnic at Sunset in the Park Under the Bridge Submitted by Anonymous Photographer's comment: "There was a picnic and screening of Stand by Me last night in the park under the bridge. Snapped this at sunset before the movie started." : Not Everyone Loves the Waterfalls ... Submitted by Jason Photographer's comment: "Not everyone is a fan." : Untitled Submitted by Alex K. Photographer's comment: "Walked along the piers to see all four falls yesterday. Nothing like saltwater in the face. :)" : Waterfall and Ferries Submitted by Wanda McCrae Photographer's comment: "The Governors Island Ferry docks in front of the waterfall, as the Staten Island Ferry passes.” : Brooklyn Bridge Waterfall Submitted by Adolfo Miranda Photographer's comment: None : Blowing Waterfall Submitted by Simon Fondrie-Teitler Photographer's comment: "I took the ferry to Governors Island, and on the way back a thunderstorm came, with large gusts of wind. The waterfall started blowing onto the island, soaking the people waiting for the next ferry." : Up the East River Submitted by Wanda McCrae Photographer's comment: "From Brooklyn Bridge Park you can see the waterfalls at the Brooklyn Bridge and just north of the Manhattan Bridge." : Brooklyn Bridge Falls Submitted by Daniel Turkewitz Photographer's comment: "Taken July 19, from the South Street Seaport." : Wired.com photographer Bryan Derballa captures one visitor's displeasure with the waterfalls. Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT