Every once and a while I have to get dressed up for a wedding or something. And it’s kind of fun, but it always reminds me that I’m just not fancy on the inside. No matter how decked out I am I’m still a jeans and a tshirt person deep down. But hopefully that’s not true of luxury tech products that people spend a lot of money on. They should be just as shiny and fabulous on the inside. Right? LuxInside is trying to expose what’s really going on inside the fanciest purchases.
Photographer Laurence Picot had the idea to bring a group together that could combine their talents to see through walls. Or, you know, stuff. She partnered with radiologist Jean François Paul, software designer Sylvain Ordureau and graphic designer Ricardo Escobar and they all worked together to 3d scan the objects, process the data, and produce striking images of deluxe gadgets’ inner lives. It took years to figure out a system that didn’t just image interference from all the plastic and metal in the items. The group wanted to downplay that visual noise while still representing it if it could provide some commentary about the makeup of a given product.
The group imaged everything from a Gibson Les Paul guitar to an S.T. Dupont lighter and a Hermes saddle. And peering inside allows you to see that there aren’t just luxury materials on the outside of these products. The wiring of the guitar is simple and refined, you can see the brass work in the camera, and the leather saddle is engineered from carbon fibre and memory foam. The group even imaged Louboutin shoes and Picot told Wired that, “Good quality high heels are still made with metal from suppliers of aircraft industries.”
Produced by the Institut Français, the 14 photos and their corresponding objects are currently showing at Sofitel Copacabana in Rio De Janeiro through September 20th. The exhibit will also go to Paris and Sao Paolo in the next few months. Check out these photos and then peer into your own soul. [Wired]
