The plane crash photos are interesting and a little disturbing. The others are, to put it diplomatically, a little earnest with the Photoshop. posted by aladfar at 4:44 PM on February 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
Some of those were actually disturbing, I felt a spontaneous visceral twinge. posted by amethysts at 4:44 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
These just look like still images from 2012, Planet of the Apes, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, Armageddon and the end of A.I. Is there something I'm missing? posted by orville sash at 4:46 PM on February 20, 2010 [7 favorites]
I like the nonchalance of the pedestrians in that first image. posted by tresbizzare at 4:49 PM on February 20, 2010 [2 favorites]
The big crashes become uninteresting after the first one or two... the most powerful image of the bunch is the one with the woman pulling a gun on the younger woman opposite her. There's a real feeling of dread, of the moment before everything changes... much more frightening than a tidal wave bearing down on the Chrysler building. posted by jokeefe at 4:53 PM on February 20, 2010
All awesome, especially the liberty torch in the sinkhole/cave mouth. posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:02 PM on February 20, 2010
The pics are cool. What I find funny about these types of images is that people get these great ideas in their heads and then when it comes down to looking at the people in the shot, they all look so completely "Whatever." posted by parmanparman at 5:27 PM on February 20, 2010
Awesome, he did one of Ottawa! posted by LN at 5:28 PM on February 20, 2010
Yeah, he's from Ontario. I found that funny but then, I'm from Ontario, so... posted by stinkycheese at 5:33 PM on February 20, 2010
I was sure people had had enough of seeing the world's cities destroyed on film, and then 2012 made $769M at the box office. So... I was, uh, wrong. posted by gwint at 5:34 PM on February 20, 2010
After the first two I was excited, but then he just went into boring fantastical images. I was hoping he would stick to depicting the horrors promised by the conservative right and the TSA: an endless number of airplanes where they ought not be. posted by TwelveTwo at 5:43 PM on February 20, 2010
> crash
> crash
> post-apocalyptic landscape
> post-apocalyptic landscape
> random whirlpool
> soon-to-crash
> apocalyptic landscape
> post-apocalyptic landscape
> apocalyptic landscape
> murder
> attempted-murder
> post-apocalyptic landscape
> apocalyptic landscape
> aliens n shit
> who the fuck builds a city like that?
> apocalyptic landscape
> tentacle rape
> guy with his head cut up
I really like these, both for their picking-at-the-9/11-scab quality and for implied commentary about seeing terrible destruction as entertainment. The fact that they put one in mind of a disaster movie is a good thing in my mind because it isolates the spectacle of disaster from the context of a schlocky story, and invites us to meditate on it.
But I kept getting drawn out of the work by small, technical things. Case in point: those are awfully big ships for the Ottawa river. I'm not sure you could get a big freighter up the river that far, or why you would want to. Similarly, the Paris picture had strange problems of scale. posted by Dreadnought at 5:59 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Are any available in sofa size? posted by hal9k at 6:11 PM on February 20, 2010
strange problems of scale.
the logic of nightmares? posted by stinkycheese at 6:18 PM on February 20, 2010
These just look like still images from 2012, Planet of the Apes, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, Armageddon and the end of A.I. Is there something I'm missing?
i can tell from the pixels and having seen quite a few shops in my time...
(seriously, dude has real issues with scale) posted by polyglot at 6:37 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
This guy probably sells most of his work to Roland Emmerich for him to hang on his living room walls. posted by Joakim Ziegler at 6:38 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
That could be it. But I don't really see it. The emphasis seems to be on photorealism and the juxtaposition of the terrible and fantastic with the mundane (see, for example, the huge tsunami in the process of covering very ordinary looking road markings). My guess is that the artist wants to insert cars and planes and ships into his deluges in order to give a sense of scale. So when the scale seems wrong, I find it off-putting. Naturally, I could be completely misreading this. But that's my first impression. posted by Dreadnought at 7:05 PM on February 20, 2010
These just look like still images from 2012, Planet of the Apes, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, Armageddon and the end of A.I.
Or, any episode of "Life Without People." posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:10 PM on February 20, 2010
In the one in which the city is underwater, it doesn't even begin to make sense. Why are the trash trucks and car floating (or only now sinking to the ocean bottom)? Furthermore, why are the lights on? Looks like there's sun coming through the top of the water. And what's with the helicopter? Teenage me, I suspect, would have said COOL! and moved on, but adult me is annoyed.
I'm overthinking a post-apocalyptic plate of beans aren't I posted by barnacles at 7:31 PM on February 20, 2010
This guy probably sells most of his work to Roland Emmerich for him to hang on his living room walls.
I like these in spirit, and they're technically good, but same as with the type of movies they pay homage to, I'm always a bit bored by the obvious.
After watching Cloverfield, my immediate response was, "Why do aliens hate Manhattan so much? That would have been so much better if it was set in Queens." posted by billyfleetwood at 8:50 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
In the one in which the city is underwater, it doesn't even begin to make sense. Why are the trash trucks and car floating (or only now sinking to the ocean bottom)? Furthermore, why are the lights on? Looks like there's sun coming through the top of the water. And what's with the helicopter? Teenage me, I suspect, would have said COOL! and moved on, but adult me is annoyed.
I like to think the trucks have joined the local ecosystem and are preying on the fish. posted by rubah at 9:31 PM on February 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
If someone wants to take from that I don't consider this artist's work to be that much different than what I've seen in threads on Something Awful or Know Your Meme, well...yeah. Pretty much. posted by happyroach at 4:13 PM on February 21, 2010
posted by aladfar at 4:44 PM on February 20, 2010 [3 favorites]