Gallery: Look Inside: A Spectacular Collection of Cutaway Infographics
Fabian Oefner01FabianOefner.jpg
*Look Inside* is a stunning new book filled with cutaway infographics. This exploded view of a 1961 Jaguar E-Type is one of photographer Fabian Oefner's visualizations.
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The renowned physician Fritz Kahn is one of five designers spotlit in *Look Inside*. The other four are all contemporary; the editors make an exception for Kahn, a master of graphics. He used both data and metaphors to explain the inner workings of bodies and minds. This graphic shows what happens in the human brain when seeing a car and saying the word "car."
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Yes, you can go on a tour of the White House. Or you could peek inside all its chambers with this illustration by Robert W. Nicholson. He created it for *National Geographic* in 1968. The inset in the corner is of the White House as we see it more often—intact, from the outside.
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“From the beginning the idea was to make not only a collection of scientific infographics, but show the whole range of how different artists are using these type of illustrations,” says Juan Velasco, one of the book's editors. “Some are purely creative and based on fantasy.” That's true here, in Bedelgeuse's gorgeous illustrations.
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Nychos's cross-section of a Doberman snout falls somewhere between scientific and artistic. Like Fritz Kahn, he uses simplified lines and shapes to illuminate a complicated subject—in this case, canine anatomy.
Heinrich Berghaus06HeinrichBerghaus.jpg
Heinrich Berghaus's cross section of the earth's crust is old, and appeared in a 1841 volume of Berghaus's own *Physical Atlas*. It's incredibly comprehensive, and details the different strata of rock through a color-coded key.
Fernando Baptista07FernandoBaptista.jpg
Fernando Baptista is another featured master in the book. He specializes in architectural cutaways, like this analysis on domed structures throughout the world.
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By digitally peeling off the roof, through CAD, architects at Foster and Partners are able to show how the auditoriums and rooms of the Sage Gateshead music center all fit together.
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Artist Koen Hauser fuses together anatomy class with fashion photography with this morbid series. The digitally manipulated photography cleverly exposes people for what they really are: a bunch of bones and muscles.
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Nick Kaloterakis created this hyper-realistic exploded view of a wind turbine for *Popular Science*. The impact of seeing machinery like this is, hopefully, to instill a sense of appreciation in the viewer. We rely on this kind of technology often without knowing how it works.
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This is one by the editor. Juan Velasco and Bruce Morser created this dazzlingly intricate map of the Forbidden City in Beijing for National Geographic.
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Hans Jenssen created this exploded view of a 1940s P-51 Mustang fighter plane with pen and ink—computer modeling wasn't yet available. In this drawing in particular, scale helps. That's a lot of engine to propel one soldier through the air.
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