Technological Taxidermy: Ghosty Images of Obsolete Gadgets

Barcelona-based artist Max de Esteban creates strange, faded images that look a lot like X-rays or old school cyanotypes. In reality, they’re a layer-by-layer photographic reassembly of the cameras, tape decks, typewriters, and other outdated gadgets that he has taken apart, painted white, and then shot at different stages of the rebuild. “By eliminating the objects’ individual peculiarities, each photograph becomes a generic symbol of decay and death,” de Esteban explains in his artist’s statement. “While sophisticated and state-of-the-art not long ago, these tools evoke today a sense of fragility, archaism and trauma.”