Artist Nick Gentry Paints Realistic Portraits Onto Strips of Discarded 35mm Film

London-based artist Nick Gentry is known for using interesting materials to make his photographic work, and his newest series Synthetic Daydreams is no exception. For Synthetic Daydream, Gentry decided to paint realistic portraits on used, discarded film negatives.

The medium is in keeping with Gentry’s continued commentary on the role technology plays in our lives — in the past he’s done similar projects using floppy disks and other ‘expired’ media — but the film, in our opinion, goes further than floppies can.

Each frame itself contains an image, a moment in history that contributes meaning to the final portraits.

Check out the full series below:

A solo exhibition of the Synthetic Daydreams opened yesterday at the Robert Fontaine Gallery in Miami, Florida if you’d like to see these pieces in their original form.

And if you’d like to see more of Gentry’s portfolio or follow along as he continues to create work, “influenced by the development of consumerism, technology, identity and cyberculture in society,” head over to his website or follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

(via The Creators Project)

Image credits: Photographs by Nick Gentry and used with permission