The Unbelievable and Impossible Photos of Li Wei

Nov. 3, 2009 | Best Of | 178 comments

Li Wei, a contemporary artist from Beijing China, has been taking self portraits to new heights… literally!

His gravity defying photos have been mesmerizing the world, capturing impossible looking moments of apparent extreme danger.

You’ll find Wei hanging on in dangerous situations, or crashing head on into sidewalks and cars.

Li Wei states that these images are not computer montages and that he works with the help of props such as mirrors, metal wires, scaffolding and acrobatics. He then removes the wires and scaffolding with Photoshop to create these seemingly impossible photos.

“My artistic language is universal and deals with themes about contemporary politics and society using symbols understood by everyone in every part of the world. I am fascinated by the unstable and dangerous sides of art…”

Here’s a collection of some of Wei’s most outstanding photos, in a unique combination of artistry and acrobatics that are sure to make you take a second look.

The Unbelievable and Impossible Photos of Li Wei photo

You can find more about Li Wei at his website: Liweiart.com

What do you think of this type of art? Feel free to share your comments below.

SHARE THIS POST

COMMENTS

http://designinformer.com Design Informer

Woah! That’s crazy. Great post! These pictures are impressive. (Photoshop)
http://www.afsincelik.com Afsin

These are impossible and I don’t believe :)
http://blog.gootum.com gootum

WOW Impossible Photos
http://www.stevemullencreative.com Steve Mullen

Awesome photos! Some Pretty funny stuff in there.
http://twitter.com/renjunkui Ren

李伟, BeiJing Rock!!! Hope that you will shoot more of the outstanding works. Amazing photos.
- Thomas
  
  Ren… Why hope for “more”? There is a huge amount in this compilation. It’s not about quantity, but quality.
http://shingonoide.barradev.com Rui Andrada

Awesome photos, I can belive what I’ve seen, great artist!
gordon

quite nice photoshop
http://BLOGitse.blogspot.co BLOGitse

wow, these are great! Thanks for sharing!
http://tr.im/mewC Rahul – Web Guru

OMG… how is this possible…
- Luhar – normal guy
  
  @Rahul – Wow man you’re presenting yourself as Web Guru, but ask such a dumb question?
  
  (Indeed great work)
  - Bobby Adamson – Appreciator of Comedy
    
    LOL!
  - humaira
    
    luhar..i guess you are really very normal.
    i liked your comment about the web guy!!hehehe..:D
http://creativeoverflow.net Jacques//An1ken

These Pictures are really great some made me laugh. Its Unbelievable.
http://www.squiders.com Web Design Kent

Brilliant, witty and very very cool
http://creation-site-internet.hdclic.com kolin, créateur de site

wow ! This guys is realy awesome ! Thank you for these great peaks.
https://twitter.com/Lukelux Luke Lux

It’s a great post, excellent work guys.
Thanks to share it!
http://www.fantasybookbanner.com John G

I’m very impressed. He’s definitely pushing the boundaries of creativity. It’s really inspiring.
http://www.webmasterdubai.com webmasterdubai

really impressive and unbelievable pics, great work.
http://www.insidethewebb.com/ Inside the Webb

Really cool stuff, never seen photography like this before…
http://www.iamkreative.co.uk/blog kevin

Woo, how amazing is that, how is that done?
http://syntaxmonster.net John Hamelink

That is very impressive, I have never seen anything like it before – a first for me. Very inspiring ;)
http://www.itolmach.com Ivan Tolmachev

Wow.. Are they using those rail structures? or is it plain photoshop?
http://www.classesandcareers.com/ Teacher Teacher

I can admire the talent of thinking it through and being able to execute these shots and photoshop the cables and such, but I confess that I don’t care for the finished product. A little too disturbing.
http://www.designfollow.com/ designfollow

Woo, how amazing is that
http://www.doublejdesign.co.uk Jack

Simply stunning! I guess this is because of great photo shooting tricks + PS skills.
http://claudiacarvalhodesign.blogspot.com Claudia

Much creativity and amazing stunts!
http://www.sametomorrow.com/blog Adam

I’ve seen his work before really good.
RoaldA

Haha, crazy asians! :D Soo cool!
http://www.viadigita.com David S

Very witty…but a few of these gave me a woozy, vertigo-type feeling.

I guess that is proof of the effectiveness of some of these “high” shots.

Thanks for the post!
http://www.ben-lang.com Ben Lang

I just wanted to give you a shoutout. You are a remarkable blogger and a role model to me! Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
Ben Lang
http://www.agora-institute.com julien

Very creative. amazing set.
http://www.borgetsolutions.com/web-solutions Siddharth Menon Web Portals

lol this is amazing … really nice.

Would like to know how he manage to fake some :D
joe

beautiful!
http://www.orphicpixel.com Mars

how he do that
http://www.banbangkok.com บ้านมือสอง

some is so funny, thx
Marc

For someone so creative, WTF is up with his fluffy steering wheel and seat covers ?!? (See red car).

Marc
http://www.eficacy.com/ Kamal

Amazing work!
But the claim that these are not digitally edited compositions seems a bit too far fetched to believe! Great work nevertheless. I thoroughly enjoyed going through :)
http://www.twitter.com/dyls Dylan van der Heij

Impressive photo collection. I love the fact that your playing with photography and imaginary ideas, really being creative!
http://www.aledesign.it aledesign.it

Incredible photo!! Fantastic man!! So terrible!..Amazing!
http://www.randon.de Andreas

Really great pictures!!!
Check out his Website for some Making Of Videos
http://www.liweiart.com/english/works_video.htm
http://www.mushroomdigital.co.uk web design services stoke

Excellent photo’s. Some seem possible, some just seem crazy! Brilliant!
http://www.empfehlenswert-wien.at wien

lol, super photos
http://www.wallpaper.com Kay @ Wallpaper*

Kamal – They ARE digitally edited compositions, it says it in the copy at the top of the story!

And to anyone who would like to see how Li Wei actually works his magic you can watch a behind the scenes video of a shoot he did for Wallpaper* magazine (some of the shots from this spread have been used in the story above):

http://www.wallpaper.com/video/fashion/made-in-china-fashion-shoot-behind-the-scenes-beijing/23810663001
http://www.tim-holmes-design.co.uk TimHolmesDesign

Wow!!!! some really clever work here. Truly amazed at the quality.

Cheers
http://www.gport.nl Gerben van Dijk

Amazing shots, but i do not see how this could be done without retouching.
http://www.media-desktop.de Denis

Wow, amazing!!!
http://rupensharma.blogspot.com Rupen Sharma

Some are witty, while others just don’t trigger emotion in me. Nevertheless, the talent is apparently oozing…
http://vththu.blogspot.com VTHT

this is amazing, who would ever think of these stunts
i laughed the whole time :P
http://www.utamaduniwear.com Wambui

OMG you are awesome!
http://www.creativeindividual.co.uk Laura

These are so unique! Superb ideas and execution! Thanks for sharing!

My favourites were the flying ones, out of cars, in and out of buildings, and with people piled on top. Also loved the bow and arrow one, very funny =D

And I’d just like to say a big thank you to WDD, I am always impressed by your posts. Keep them coming!
http://www.iconfinder.net Martin Leblanc

Amazing creativity!
http://listoric.deviantart.com Listoric

I knew some of them already, but that`s really a great collection. Stunning and inspiring. Easy concept and great execution. Just awesome!
http://evelt.com joel k.

this is one amazing artist who redefined self portrait just wait and see how artist around the world push this style (and photoshop) farther and farther

good post :) thanks
http://gabediaz.com Gabe Diaz

Wow, these are very creative and amazing finished photos!
http://www.proniit.com/ Dalesh Kowlesar

That was just awesome! Some of these pictures are just incredibly full of imagination!
http://www.alexkluge.de/blog/ Alex

Really like the idea. Entertaining. Funny. Seriously Mad :P
http://www.erkasoft.com erkasoft web tasarim

great & creative.
http://sexidesign.com Melody

The girl with the pony is so adorable! I would love to see the behind the scenes of one of these photo shoots come to life!
http://www.mlwebco.com ML Web Consulting

Very creative. Nice. ~ ML
http://Internet-Creatives.com Webmisstress Anne

I love seeing what crazy inventions the mind of man can create. Who would even imagine some of those poses?

Fabulous photos.
http://www.paintbits.com greven

Pure awesomeness.
http://chitchatcorner.com/ Nancy

Even though you explained how he does it, it is still unbelievable! Great!
http://www.tractr.net Tractr

He is presently featured in a Montreal Exibition: http://mouvementartpublic.wordpress.com/
txe9211

they are so impressive and so funny.
love them.
http://www.noonewebdesign.com kevin

I like it, it is Great
http://www.icouple.sg/blog YILKA

Love! So creative and funny pix :)
http://zacklive.com Zack

Amazing, how did he do that?
Hastimal Shah

It was amazing and funny also.
http://www.cyberdesignz.com web designing

Hi these images are amazing and i must say that you did a great job and your images are amazing!
Nice work mate and good going!
http://www.designbeep.com DesignBeep

awesome..stunning..unbelievable

Thanks for sharing
http://www.ishantechnologies.com James

Its unbelievable.

Simply great and creative work.

Regards,
James
http://devesigner.com Lamin Barrow

WOOOA.. these are freaking awesome. I ‘m loving it
http://www.webdesign-gm.co.uk Oliver Web

Amazing and impressive photos. He’s got a great imagination and some mad skills. Thanks for sharing these. Can’t wait to see more of these photos.
Eric Grint

Awesome post! more than real :P
http://www.cromoart.de fksd

crazy stuff. thanks a lot!
http://premiumthemeclub.com/ Premium Theme Club

ha ha ha ha ha ha wow good photos,it’s really mood changing. fuuuuuunnnnnyyyyy
http://deviantpicz.blogspot.com Prongs

cool stuff…. crazy imagination with brilliant talents…
hatz off…..
http://www.isquaretechnologies.com Joomla Web Design

Hehe.. that’s a great stuff. Crazy ones… thanks a lot!!
robster51

There are no wires. He is actually Ultraman.
http://blogote.com Rockstar Sid

Boy ‘o’ boy.. that was just awesome!!! Stumbled it…
http://www.iamcodie.com iamcodie

Nice one LOL .. good work of psd .
http://en.saturngod.net saturngod

LOL! Awesome in photoshop :)
http://digitalartempire.com/ Benjamin

nice greart ideas here – tcx
http://www.mypcspot.com Alen

Some are nice. Photoshop goes a long way.
http://www.gtmmediagroup.com Anibal Blasutti

Chinese man, CAN FLYYYY!
http://about2.cn about2

nice liwei
http://linux.blog.gunadarma.ac.id/ newbie

unbelieveable.. how could he did that? Is he used Photoshop?
http://dress-4-less.blogspot.com Margaret Sybil

ha ha ha!!
These are really amazing picture!!
i loved them!!
http://truehealthcare.info/ truehealthcare

awesome, funny, creative..that’s all I can say..speechless
http://www.encelabs.com keith

wow!!!
http://www.freemanlegacyllc.com Ms. Freeman

Soooo cool! :) It really is amazing what he has done here. I would be afraid to even attempt it with wires and scaffolding.
http://www.fordevs.com joy

very creative … kewl stuff!!!
Rajesh

Whhh… its really Amazing photo i never seen that photo before today.
thanks
Jason

Dear Li Wei,
Please buy and wear longer shorts.

kthxbai
Hao Chin

Thank…..!
http://promps.22web.net promps

wow….how did you do that…you should show us some tricks….
promps
http://www.pixmac.com Vitezslav Valka

Strange but innovative. Thank you for it!
http://www.thiscg.com touk

thank alot
http://www.dropfoundry.com ben

Reminds me of a Fark Photohop contest.
http://www.SIGN4U.ch SIGN4U

Nice ideas – nice done!
Please more of them :-)
http://www.sekolahku.info gilig

I watched the behind-scene photo making from wallpapers. It is also great to know that he did that for some philosophical reasons.
http://www.ecigarettesnational.com electronic cigarette

These photos are great, but since I am terribly afraid of heights, some of them were really hard for me to look at!
http://www.xininvoice.com Qi

unbelievable!!!
http://jaze.com.au Mike

Brilliant!
http://www.entrydirectory.com max

Awesome photoshop picture. really impressive and unbelievable pics..
http://tina.reeze.cn tina

Incredible！！
http://www.nettvor.cz Cuba

Nice ideas but its only Photoshop montage
- Thomas
  
  Hi Cuba … read the introduction, before you start complaining. It is already stated: These are NOT montages – they are made with cables and mirrors, and these are then digitally removed in photoshop. But the images are not montages, they are shot as you see them.
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/11/the-unbelievable-and-impossible-photos-of-li-wei/ Agie

AmaZiNg…!!
http://www.ucsdugme.com düğme

this is one amazing artist who redefined self portrait just wait and see how artist around the world push this style (and photoshop) farther and farther

good post :) thanks
http://www.firelightecigarettes.com firelight e cigarettes

Great information you have here on your site!
http://www.firelightecigarettewholesalers.com/ firelight e cigarette wholesalers

Not too many site out there that have the kind of information you
present here. Thanks for the content.
http://www.buykamagra.com kamagra

wow this guy is great with those photos. does he have a website?
http://www.chrisord.co.uk Chris

Those are amazing!
evgeniy

Well, I think that sucks. Don’t know what all the fuss is about.
http://www.cyndeemoore.com Cyndee Adkins Design

conversation starters for sure!
http://www.thegeneralgazette.com Antler Chandeliers

Great stuff…really enjoyed the read. Sometimes it’s hard coming
across interesting info as you have on your site. Keep up the great
work!
http://www.emlakx.net Emlak

Amazing work!
But the claim that these are not digitally edited compositions seems a bit too far fetched to believe! Great work nevertheless. I thoroughly enjoyed going through
http://www.babyoso.com babyoso

Lol, gotta love that Sparta kick at the beginning.
http://www.driverthai.com Driver

Oh! Amazing Photo.
http://www.evographics.com Evo

I like the photo of the little girl with the balloons. Who didn’t want to do that when they were a kid!
pRagmata

These are great pictures and excellent use of photoshop to capture ideas that aren’t just airbrushing or filtering techniques.

Are you people blind or just too stupid to read? It says in the write-up before the pictures that he takes the pictures using wires and mirrors and then edits them in Photoshop. @Emlak, why are you saying, “But the claim that these are not digitally edited compositions seems a bit too far fetched to believe!”, no one claimed that. It says up top, edited with Photoshop. Stop being ignorant smart asses and read a few lines of text please.
http://gmail.com minie

wires and lines
http://strugglingentrepreneur.wordpress.com Kevin Wilson

Awesome art
http://www.webdesign-gm.co.uk Website design bristol

Love some of these pictures, they look real, some however dont but fun and interesting ,thanks
Bill

This guy is truly amazing.
http://www.car-free.ca Grover

Very Qool, high flyin’ stuff.
seymon

not interesting
http://www.icebluebanana.com mark

These are really impressive! I especially like the one with the girl in the red shirt throwing you off of the top of a building.
Blankie

ok i say nice but not incredible lol ……lots of ppl who work on photoshop CS4 and adobe after effects CS4 can do this…..
- Thomas
  
  Dear Blankie. It’s not a montage, it’s a physical shoot, taken like it’s shown, but with a digital removal of cables and equipment. You – or anyone else here for that matter – could NOT make these images if they wanted to. It’s the creation of a true artist – not a photoshopper.
  
  I suggest you read the introduction, that explains this, before you start stating that this could be done by anyone.
  - Mark
    
    I totally disagree.
    
    First, you are claiming that nobody else in the world has access to cables and scaffolding. That’s a pretty ridiculous statement.
    
    And most of these could easily be done with Photoshop, so despite the method, the end result could be the same – if not better. If I Photoshop someone into a picture, and the end user cannot tell one from a really set up scene, how is one method better than the other?
    
    Just the fact that so many people without reading (including myself) thought these WERE done in Photoshop speaks volumes. I don’t think it’s just designers. I think if you asked the average layperson, they would think they say “Photoshoped”.
    
    I’m not sure the extra expense and much greater effort required makes it any greater an art form.
  - http://absolutely-fuzzy.com stephanie
    
    That so many people thought they were photoshopped does speak volumes -
    
    It speaks for our lack of ability to look beyond creating things like these photos BEYOND an application. The fact that these images took a lot of time to set up and shoot says a lot about the creator.. he could easily have photoshopped it, as you would, instead chose to deal with the more technical side of actually creating art.
    
    What would you do if photoshop did not exist?
http://www.choyungteareview.com/ Cho Yung Tea

Awesome photos, I can belive what I’ve seen, great artist!
http://linglingfa.com Linglingfa

Oh……It’s cool!
willkozak

Great skill! I love these, very creative and entertaining.
http://esmokesaloon.com Larry

Fantastic! I’d like to see him floating above a cloud of smoke streaming from an electronic cigarette!
http://www.amoyachts.com/?lang=es Alquiler de yates en Ibiza

The pics are fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
http://greensmoke.com Sally E

OMG!!What creativity! Have never seen the like!!!!
http://zazzle.com/wookiepooky Dan Lewis

I agree with most of the commenters, the photos are marvelous. I’m inspired.
http://www.latex-mask.com/fr.html LeMasque

Crazy pictures. Just asking myself how he achieved the ‘hangs out of the window’ pictures. I assume he masked the ropes holding the guy with photoshop ?
kamal

Hi, that’s good, and i well exprim u somme technique of somme pictures, he take double pic of same place and action of combination of the both, of course conserve some level of lighting and color, on this point is very important, finaly cut the pic with background has one color like green or blue (3d).
mrkay1

One can do it in Photoshop, but not easy . . .
Rhilwan

Waoh! These are really c-o-o-o-o-o-l stuffs. I wonder how much time, imagination and skills this guy put into those great looking pictures. Crazy yet got my eyes fixed on every bit of it. Will like to learn that from you. Please keep the good job up
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danny-demichele/ Danny DeMichele Flikr

Great stuff…really enjoyed the read. Keep up the great work!
mark

it might be dolls, lightweight dolls.
Abdou

This is photography + photomanipulation.
http://www.link86.net/chengren/ 成人用品

it might be dolls, lightweight dolls.
http://www.edeskco.com/ executive desk

Hmmmm Impossible. Great use of imagination power. These are great! Thanks for sharing!
http://dailycreative.ru/ DailyCreative

Amazing artwork!
http://www.dannydemicheleonline.com/2009/10/danny-demichele-seo-techniques/ Danny DeMichele Photos

Incredible photos.. I love the fact that your playing with photography and imaginary ideas, really being creative!
Sahil

Amazing
Ton

baloon peaple…….. Nice fun theme and with a great vision accomplished.
http://www.xocoslim.com/ diet for weight loss

I am a photographer. And still feeling strange for my job. How can anyone think of this imagination??
http://www.xincube.com inblues

amazing stuff!
http://www.cogzidel.com/ Ganesh

Unthinkable snap shots…
SID

Congra,.. excelent work !
EfratKa

this is amazing !!!! wow !!!
http://www.devoox.com creer site

It’s very funny :)
$unny

Sooooo funny pics but liked the post …. The Unbelievable and Impossible Photos of Li Wei thnks for sharing
http://argingtonbamcollection.com Argington Bam Collection

This is IMPOSSIBLE…
That is very impressive, I have never seen anything like it before.
But IMPOSSIBLE…
http://barclaybathroom.com/ Barclay Bathroom

its awesome hey lie can you provide training also so that we can also do such rocking things but what i think it will be a animation plus knowledge plus technology plus flexibilty effect
http://www.lead411.com/Thomas_Austin_2885746.html Thomas Austin

Somebody should hand Li a copy of Photoshop to save time and extra effort put into making these seeming impossible photographs that a good work keep going welldone
http://www.lead411.com/Francine_Axler_1608290.html Francine Axler

li is a contemporary artist from Beijing. His work often depicts him in apparently gravity-defying situations. Wei started off his performance series ‘Mirroring’ and later on took off attention with his ‘Falls’ series which shows the artist with his head and chest embedded into the ground
http://icopywriter.com/faq.html SEO content

Very nice collection,you’ll find Wei hanging on in dangerous situations, or crashing head on into sidewalks and cars.
http://www.tarifarak.com TARIFA RAK

And what´s of interest here?
http://gtwebconcepts.com/tim bnther

Amazing!
http://www.myspace.com/mykalaikontilai Mykalai Kontilai

Incredible snaps,man……i was deeply astounded when i saw these..
keep up this good work…….
http://www.lead411.com/Susanna_Brandon_2956910.html Susanna Brandon

breathtaking. truly amazing.
http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=6487 Nightly Business Report

I totally agree with the heading-UNBELIEVABLE AND INCREDIBLE PHOTOS OF LI WEI ..these are truly amazing and breath-taking!!!I swear….
http://odyssey-tours.com/ Tour Rome Italy

impossible and unbelievable pics of li wei ……………..but so funny I liked it.
http://www.myspace.com/mykalaikontilai Mykalai Kontilai

Soooo cool!!!! It really is amazing what he has done here. I would be afraid to even attempt it with wires and scaffolding:)
http://www.lead411.com/Kevin_Dachille_1457760.html Kevin Dachille

I would like to say that this blog really convinced me, his guys is realy awesome ! Thanks you for these great peaks.you give me best information! Thanks, very good post..
http://jhassgroupllc.com/ J Hass Group

I’m very impressed. He’s definitely pushing the boundaries of creativity. It’s really inspiring.
http://www.WFHMarket.com WFH Market

It’s really breathtaking and one should not try this unless they have got an expert training and a proper precaution should be evenly taken..
http://creativei.in Rakesh

Wow so creative… what a perfection
Thomas

Read the introduction. And stop spamming forums with your bullshit user names.

	Yes, they're great for usability.
	No, they remind me of frames.
	Fixed what?

The Unbelievable and Impossible Photos of Li Wei

Our Favorite Tweets of the Week Feb 21-Feb 27, 2011

Our favorite tweets of the week Jun 13-Jun 19, 2011

Our favorite tweets of the week: May 13, 2013 - May 19, 2013

Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Feb 21-Feb 27, 2011

Our favorite tweets of the week
Jun 13-Jun 19, 2011