See how a robot captures human faces in excruciating detail

These are not your usual Hollywood closeups. Swiss photographer Daniel Boschung created the series Face Cartography by using a robot to take high-megapixel pictures of peoples' faces, blowing up their features to striking detail. While macro photography like this isn't new, Boschung is slightly more removed from the process because he uses an ABB industrial robot with an attached Canon EOS Mark ll camera and a 180mm macro lens to capture hundreds of single shots of each subject. The final images are composites of those single shots, creating stunning photos with 900 million pixels.

While facial details are heightened, emotions are noticeably lacking from the images. "Emotions show up only briefly while macro photography takes half an hour," Boschung explains on his website. "The person has to stay motionless while being photographed by the robot." The photos break down each face, turning wrinkles, eyebrows, beards, and other features into removed, almost unrecognizable objects. Boschung seems to have an affinity for macro photography, using similar methods to take detailed photos of insects and paintings. The entire Face Cartography series and versions of each that allow you to zoom in closer can be found on Boschung's website RoboPhot.

Photography courtesy of Daniel Boschung