Flowervases is an explosive series by photographer Martin Klimas that shows exactly what a shattering flower vase looks like the split-second (one seven-thousandth of a second, to be exact) its destruction begins, as a steel ball shoots through it.
Oops, photographer Martin Klimas did it again: he created nothing less than a high-speed photographic explosion. Flawlessly arranged flower vases are shot by steel balls and captured at the moment of their destruction. When hit by the projectiles, glass vases shatter, and ceramic and stoneware vases burst into large fragments. Each of the photographs is taken against a solid background usually contrasting with the color of the vase, making it all the more mesmerizing to look at.
What interests Klimas is not so much the moment of impact as the transformation taking place in one seven-thousandth of a second. While the top half of the photograph remains poised in an absolutely harmonious still life, utter chaos has erupted below. The contrast of motionlessness and top speed explodes the triteness of the subject. The simultaneous presence of two distinct states and the improbable serenity of the pictures are positively spellbinding.
Remember: This isn’t the first time Klimas has used high-speed photography to capture moments of destruction not normally seen by the naked eye. For another project called Porcelain Figurines, he dropped sculptures from a height of three meters, snapping a picture at the moment they collided with the earth. And in 2010, he created a series called Exploding Vegetables, which depicted fruits and vegetables being shot by a projectile, with the aim of “reflecting our shift towards healthy food and away from junk food”.
