Sand Creatures That Defy Gravity

What goes up must come down. But photographer Claire Dropperts manages to capture a menagerie in flight in her latest series,Gravity — Sand Creatures.

These portraits of sand suspended mid-air suggest different animals to Droppert:Hare, Fish, Goat, Caterpillar.Like identifying objects in the clouds, these images tease our brain’s desire to bring order to chaos. The photographs are perfectly timed, hitting precisely at the moment the chaos is moving into recognizable order, yet before it arrives.

Droppert creates these images with the help of frozen blocks of sand, a shovel, and a high speed camera. The Rotterdam-based photographer and visual designer says she’s inspired by “the line where simplicity and minimalism are wed.” Sand Creatures is the first chapter in her Gravity project, in which she plans to feature “Earth’s different elements and let them stand out in their natural surroundings using moments of zero gravity.” You can see more of her work here.

(h/tBehance)