Wednesday, March 3

nick veasey -logan airport

This isn't new, but just learned the backstory via ScienceBlogs. If you have driven out of Logan airport in Boston (since 2001) you have probably seen the United Airways hangar on the right before you exit the airport proper, it is wrapped in an x-ray view of an airplane created by British artist Nick Veasey. Tidbit, the pilot was reimagined so as not to appear skeletal (as is usually the case for Veasey's images) as it was thought this might spook people too much (planes/skulls/security... etc). Further reading.

Veasey limits himself to only three or four x-rays per living human subject (soemtimes uses corpses if multiple images needed) and wears a lead apron and radiation badge while working. He says, "...there are some advantages to working with radiation. For example, art directors don't want to stand next to you when you're taking the shot. I can't think why." (source: interview by Tim Rich, Print magazine).

As Veasey tells it, his artistic career started with another vehicle - and an ineffectual plan to scam Pepsi:
"My girlfriend's father used to be a lorry driver," explains Nick with a mischievous smile. "At one time he drove a lorry for a couple of days which contained thousands of cans of Pepsi, one of which had a ring-pull prize worth £100,000.

"I thought I'd try a scam. I decided to hire an x-ray machine from a local hospital to find the winning can. I never did find it, but it sparked off the ideas for the career I have today." -via Professional Photographer interview