Nick Veasey - X- ray Art

X-RAY ART

Finding a unique perspective on automotive photography is hard: it’s nearly all been done before. Techniques that break the mould are generally popularised and are quickly embraced by amateurs and professionals alike. However, to the best of my knowledge – and that of Google – Nick Veasey is the one and only photographer out there producing X-ray imagery of classic cars, and these are spectacular! ‘X-ray found me. I didn’t go all the way through school, and I had a bunch of deadend jobs. It wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I really found what interested me, and since then I’ve become obsessive – maybe a little nerdy – about it.’

The origins of how a car came into being is key for Nick. Design and aesthetics drive his passion for classic cars and each one he X-rays as part of his ongoing project has been chosen on these criteria. It may not necessarily be the rarest or the most expensive car in some cases but is always an icon of design.

While modern cars often sport a stunning exo-skeleton, that beauty isn’t necessarily reflected internally – as it is with classic cars. Excessive wiring, technology, crumple zones, speakers, lighting, airbags and so on become distracting when viewed holistically as an X-ray.

The project started a lot smaller in scale both in car and machine. Once Nick had come up with the idea of X-raying a car, the logistics proved to be the first of many hurdles to overcome.

Nick purchased a Mini for £175: ‘An old rust bucket that was going to be scrapped. We literally cut it up with an anglegrinder,’ he explained. Nick and his team then individually X-rayed each piece of the Mini. ‘When you produce an X-ray, the

MINI

1972SERIES 3LAND ROVER

image on the film comes out the same size as the object – so the larger the object, the more complicated it is and the more time it takes, that’s why we started with a small car.’

Each film piece is 35x43cm, so it was necessary to overlap each piece to make up an image. ‘A door may be one shot, but that’s made up of 8-12 X-ray images, which need to be processed, scanned and put back together in Photoshop.’

Nick and the team worked systematically from the front of the car to the back, painstakingly labelling each image as they went. The team used a Haynes repair manual to assist in piecing the Mini back together afterwards.

It required 350 individual images to make the complete image of the Mini, ten working days producing the images, and then two people for three months doing the post-production.

‘If I’m honest, it’s one of my favourite images in the series. The level of detail in the final image is amazing.’

However, Nick needed to find another way to produce the work without destroying the cars in order to continue the series. The X-ray community is a small one; and at about the same time that Nick was wrapping up the Mini, a new facility built specifically for material science was about to come on-line in Germany. The main building housing the specialty X-ray equipment measures 20x20x20m with 2.5m thick walls – more than enough space to accommodate a full-size vehicle. ‘They knew about the work I had been doing with X-ray machines and invited me to the opening. I drove a mini digger from the construction site in and we X-rayed that as a demonstration of the facility’s capabilities.’

The X-ray machine at the facility is extremely powerful. If you were in the same room while the cars were being X-rayed, you’d likely be dead in about three weeks. The standard X-ray machine Nick has in his studio uses about 250 times more power than the average household light bulb. The machine at the new facility is about another 36 times more powerful than that!

And yes, it is a very, very expensive process – each image costs Nick around £25-30k to produce.

Surprisingly, it’s not too difficult for Nick to get owners to volunteer their cars to be X-rayed. ‘It’s a very unique image and car owners love to have a talking point with other enthusiasts about their car being X-rayed.’

‘Honestly, I prefer the freedom of picking the cars myself, but I also do commissions for private collections and car manufacturers.’ His most recent commission was for Mercedes-benz, where he X-rayed an AMG GT-R.

What’s next? ‘I’d love to do an ice-cream van or a submarine – now that’d be a challenge.’

You can see Nick’s stunning work with X-ray at www.nickveasey.com and currently on display at the Lyons Gallery www.thelyonsgallery.com

1957 CITROËN 2CV

1955MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL GULLWING

1998 FERRARI F40 GTE