sarah pickering • explosion

i love the contrast happening in these photos of explosions by sarah pickering. the frozen stillness of such violent and firey eruptions is so great and the visual forms they create so pleasing to look at. the photographs, taken in the english countryside, are of pyrotechnic explosions orchestrated for british police and military training purposes. sarah is especially interested in the total remove from reality at work here, as she explains in her artist's statement (published in cabinet magazine):

"most of the photographs in this series were in fact taken during manufacturers' demonstrations for military and police shopping trips rather than during the training itself--in this sense, the images represent artificial instances of artificial explosions"

and you can have a look at more of sarah's work here.

[all sarah pickering. small photo: groundburst no. 1. 2004. big photos (top to bottom): fuel air explosion. 2005. artillery. 2005. landmine. 2005.]