As if Olympic figure skating wasn't exciting enough, now you can see the athletes literally defy physics is thanks to Christopher Hiltz. The photographer put his Photoshop skills to hilarious use on his Tumblr Without Youby editing out the partners in figure skating pairs. The result? Awkward flying contortionists with ice skates.
Hiltz explained the inspiration for Without You to Complex via email:
The idea for these manipulations was born out of confusion, really. One morning I was groggily looking at the news online, reading about the Olympics, when I saw a photo of what I thought was a female figure skater flying through the air. In my tired state I didn't notice that, with the way that the photograph was cropped, the woman's partner was at the bottom of the frame, waiting to catch her. This delusional misinterpretation led me to pull images of pairs figure skaters from the Web and manipulate them to intentionally create the same effect.
Not all of Hiltz's source photos were taken at Sochi, but the images all show current competitors. We wonder what the usually graceful athletes would think of these unbecoming portraits.
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