Fall guy

That Kerry Skarbakka is prepared to suffer for his art is evident - he repeatedly risks his own neck to achieve his daredevil photographs, tumbling spectacularly from buildings (Office, 2005, above), bridges and around the house. The Brooklyn-based artist wouldn't last long if these were entirely for real, of course, so climbing apparatus and rigging play a crucial part too - though they're airbrushed out in the final image. But Skarbakka insists he's not merely a 'glorified stuntman'. Beyond the adrenalin rush, there is a point to all this and it comes from German philosopher Martin Heidegger who claimed that human existence is 'a process of perpetual falling'. Given Skarbakka's literal interpretation of this, and that he's spent the last two years training in martial-arts cage fighting for his next project on combat, it might be more apt to call him a very serious method artist.