3-D Pop Up Pulp Art!

These photos are great! Amazing what can be done with those pulp books from bygone days.

Thomas Allen creates unique three-dimensional art by cutting out characters from old pulp fiction book covers and positioning them into action scenes.

This wonderful art was inspired by the classic pop-up books. To see more work by the artist, you can purchase Thomas Allen’s Uncovered book at Amazon or visit Foley Gallery for more photographs.

Thomas Allen, in essence, is a still life artist who through a very creative process disrupts the stillness. By carefully selecting from primarily vintage paperback novels and science journals, he brings two-dimensional images forward into three dimensional space. With simple lightning and the use of simple tools (i.e., scissors and razor-sharp knives), figures are cut out, bent and juxtapose in ways that present the tension and dynamics of staged drama. Other techniques are applied in achieving a pure sense of humor that also defy the original use of these materials and their ultimate destiny of being read once and retiring for eternity on the nearest bookshelf.

Allen constructs scenes based solely on the men and women depicted on the covers of these aged novels. He carefully cuts them from their surroundings and arranges them into new situations, often changing the context slightly to create entirely new scenes.

From cheating lovers to tough-as-nails cowboys to drop-dead gorgeous femme fatales, pulp novel covers offer a wealth of fascinating characters for Allen to work with. Once he chooses his subjects and carefully arranges them in their new three-dimensional worlds, he photographs them with a shallow depth of field. The results are scenes made of pure humor.

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