Jack Long, 'Vessels And Blooms' Water Art Bursts Into Flower (PICTURES)

Water Art Bursts Into Bloom (PICTURES)

These floral portraits may have been created using paint - but there's no canvas or paper to be seen.

They are drops of colour snapped as they splash through the air, seemingly erupting into bloom at the penultimate moment.

Artist Jack Long, 53, spends months painstakingly planning and testing each work before photgraphing them.

Long uses water mixed with thickeners, pigments and dyes. The paint is suspended in air for a split second and he uses an electronic flash to get the moment just right.

The images contain a range of "leaves", "stems", "petals" and even the "pots" are made out of paint.

Long, who has named the work 'Vessels and Blooms,' said he enjoys working with liquids because "all the pictures are different."

He said: "I love working with liquids because of their incredible versatility when creating high speed photography.

"It is as much chance as it is preparation and planning. They are all different.

"I like to use a lot of colours, variations and mixes of red, blue and yellow and green. The work takes a great amount of planning, set building and testing.

"Hundreds of captures are made in testing and then many more during the actual final capture stage. A very few stand out as being the best.

"All of my images are created in one single capture. One picture. I do not make composites from multiple images, unless otherwise noted.

"All of my fluid flowers are as captured. Photoshop is only used to 'clean up' the image and to enhance the image with basic tools."

Long, from Wisconsin, America, added: "What I like the most is that my work is so unique from other splash or liquid photography.

"The main goal is to create something truly original."

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