Artist, photographer and, most of all, a creative genius, Fabian Oefner creates what most people cannot even imagine.
Born in 1984 in Switzerland where he continues to live and work today, he has specialized in ad, industrial and editorial photography. His photographs are a result of extensive experimentation using high speed photography and his subjects are natural phenomena that he portrays as poetically as possible. What sets him apart is that he focuses on not the destination, but the journey: he places importance on the process of creating his projects, and not quite the finished product.
He makes great use of paint as part of his projects, and applies the laws of science to control the movement of the paint, transforming the complexities of science into artistic wonder.
Oefner tries to link the worlds of art and science, one that needs the mind and the other that tugs at the heart, and his projects defy the general notion that they cannot coexist. They are the quintessential example of those two aspects of life not standing parallel, but instead, like delicate curves, regularly intersecting, gently influencing the other and creating psychedelic art that is simply out of this world.
He has made several series of his photographs in his career till date, all of them incredibly eye catching. ‘Ferrari: State of the Art’ is one such series. Oefner collaborated with Ferrari and went to their headquarters in Maranello, Italy, test drove the California T 2015, the latest Ferrari Grand Tourer (the perfect dream for all you car lovers out there!) and depicted the beauty as he saw it in his eyes – powerful and fast. He says,
The acceleration of the California T into the wind convinced me to reveal the sensation of speed through form, to see the unseen and convert that emotion into a physical art piece.
So he did what he does best – rendered his artistic take on the marvel. Using powerful air streams that blow air up to 150 miles an hour, he sprayed the car with neon paint. With the innumerable shades of paint trickling down the smooth surface of the stationary car due to the powerful wind, he represented the speed and acceleration of the car with the physics of velocity in a way that is nothing less than spectacular.
In yet another series, which he calls ‘Orchid’, he filled a tank with several colours of paint, threw a black coloured sphere into that tank so that the paint would splash upwards and froze that moment in time by clicking it just as it was forced upwards. Using high speed devices that would trigger a flash when they would hear the sound of the sphere hitting the surface of the tank, he captured moments that would be lost a fraction of a second after they would have occurred. He also got his fabulous orchids on camera, which, to be very honest, look way prettier than the real kind!
Oefner’s creativity knows no bounds, he manifests his ideas in ways that surpass the average and his designs create a cocktail of colours that you can’t help but admire. For ‘Black Hole’, he dropped paint on a metallic rod which was then attached to a drill. When the drill was switched on, the paint was forced away from it. The result- a glorious blend of colours that you just can’t take your eyes off – resembles a black hole at first glance. They indeed are magnificent as they are, but this project is just a class apart!
His other series include ‘Liquid Jewel’, where he captures balloons that have been covered with paint immediately after they’ve been pricked by a needle and ‘Iridient’ where he photographs bubbles in two states – one in their humble spherical shape and the second, right after they’ve burst. The outcomes? An explosion of vibrant colours that blends, mixes and fuses together to form new shades in only a matter of seconds.
He has also photographed marvellously in his own unique manner a plethora of other objects that make you think about the simple beauty of everyday life that most of us ignore; his images make you look at the world as it really is, the beauty in insignificant things that we easily disregard, the magic in the moments we do not pay attention to.
Oefner’s creative endeavours have been immensely successful and he has had several exhibitions across Europe. His work has also been featured in several publications around the globe. To feast your eyes on more such projects, visit his website.
