A few years ago, I became interested in what stuff looks like when falling through space. Specifically, I wanted to see the accidental shapes which occur when something is unrestrained in the air.

First, I asked a young woman model to jump from a wall about two feet high. This way I could see the configuration of her body when she was in mid-air and not posing. Interestingly, when she was concentrating on something else — the landing — and her pose was sort of beyond her control.

Then I took some photos of the model lying on a sheet. I separated her image from the background sheet, and placed her “floating” body on a public domain photo of the crab nebula. There she was, floating in actual Space.

[Read More…]