Ed Fairburn turns old roadmaps into large-scale portraits with ink or pencil. Fairburn states: “Through this body of work I study both the physical attributes of the terrain and the features of my chosen subjects. I search for opportunities to synchronise the two, finding similarities between the patterns, before drafting out the portrait and building the ton.” More images after the jump.

Pencil on original Bartholomew maps of Pembroke (above) and Galloway (below).

Ink on a 1977 road map of Germany.

Oil and pencil on an OS map of South Wales, trimmed and mounted on plywood.