Age Maps - photo surgery

February 2, 2004 9:34 AM

Age Maps- photographer Bobby Neele Adams fuses two photos of the same person from different points in their life, with an unsettling effect. He uses the same technique for couples, a unique portrait idea for you all you coupled Mefites. (nsfw, bare breasts) His Broken Wings series is also worth noting.
posted by madamjujujive (16 comments total)

Hey, it's Sloth!
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:48 AM on February 2, 2004

They all look like creations of Dr. Frankenstein. It's kind of creepy, actually.
posted by ashbury at 9:53 AM on February 2, 2004

My eyes, they burn! Too nightmarish to sleep tonight! Sleep-ease, here I come!
posted by DenOfSizer at 9:59 AM on February 2, 2004

Some of those are really quite amazing, thanks for the link. Don't quite get the frankenstein/nightmare reactions though, I think they're rather beautiful.
posted by fvw at 10:01 AM on February 2, 2004

These creep the hell out of me.
posted by Orange Goblin at 10:17 AM on February 2, 2004

creepy, but really good--thanks!
posted by amberglow at 10:19 AM on February 2, 2004

I think it would be even more interesting if he took photos of people's corpses and combined them with their ultrasounds.
posted by PigAlien at 10:54 AM on February 2, 2004

Meh ...I've seen better photoshop works that seem much more beautiful and to the point to me. Learn your tools baby !
posted by elpapacito at 11:06 AM on February 2, 2004

I think they're really quite cool looking. Yes, they're creepy but that's alright, I'm pretty sure they can't steal my soul just by looking at them.

elpapacito, part of the attraction is the jagged line breaking the two photos apart. Its not about making a seamless break.

Side note, the site itself needs some attention as the links are all but invisible in my browser.
posted by fenriq at 11:25 AM on February 2, 2004

Simple/brilliant...
posted by Shane at 12:45 PM on February 2, 2004

I'm pretty sure they can't steal my soul just by looking at them.

I wouldn't be so sure....
posted by Orange Goblin at 3:00 PM on February 2, 2004

I've seen better photoshop works...
from his site:
"...a photo-montage technique he termed 'photo-surgery,' in which photographs were altered through manual excision, collage and sometime defacing of the subject"

So it is probably not photoshop at all.

(But he loses major points with me for having his entire 5 paragraph bio up as a stupid textual gif image with no alt attribute.)
posted by bashos_frog at 3:14 PM on February 2, 2004

I don't know if I like them or not...but they provoke a response - some are disturbing, and some are amusing to me, in a child is the father of the man kind of way. I like age progression things - except I like them better when someone else's body is the laboratory, rather than my own ;-)

The site is indeed poorly constructed. He should find a new designer that will better showcase his work. As fenriq pointed out, the links are nearly invisible, and I didn't catch the text-as-gif til you mentioned it, bashos_frog.

By the way, welcome to MetaFilter, bashos_frog!
posted by madamjujujive at 3:55 PM on February 2, 2004

The artists formerly known as?
posted by y2karl at 7:44 PM on February 2, 2004

I think it's very cool. I especially liked this one...I found it to be quite touching.

Agreed that the site is in dire need of redesign...that navigation is impossible to see, and I'd love to see bigger images behind the thumbnails.
posted by dejah420 at 8:15 PM on February 2, 2004

I like this very much indeed: thanks madamjujujive!
posted by misteraitch at 3:09 AM on February 3, 2004