Amazing Pothole Art

Potholes are the silent villains of our streets. They threaten our cars and cause damage to our tires. 

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In one inspired photo series, though, the potholes become the heroes of the story. The series, called “Potholes,” features urban potholes — results of inclement weather, heavy plowing, and other natural road decay — transformed into worlds all their own.

Davide Luciano and Claudia Ficca, the photographers, created the scenes in their favorite neighborhoods of New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and Montreal, establishing whimsical, fantastical settings with just a few props and costumed actors. 

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Luciano and Ficca told the Huffington Post that none of the photos — even the one above, featuring a lively rabbit — are doctored in Photoshop. In fact, the rabbit above is stuffed. Much like the featured potholes should be… with cement. 

According to the photographers’ site, the goal of this series is to “explore the urban flaws as a playground” and to “transform the bad into good.”

NEXT: A pothole baptism

Baptism - Chemin de la Fôret, Montreal

A farcical baptism scene takes place on Chemin de la Fôret in Montreal. Holy water, taken from a dirty pothole, is sprinkled over a baptized baby.

NEXT: Portal to Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland - 30th Street, NYC

The titular Alice bounds down the street, chasing a rabbit into a small pothole that looks as if it could open onto another world at any moment.

NEXT: Bon appétit

Spaghetti & Meatballs - Greenwich Street, NYC

A man gorges on a feast of spaghetti and meatballs, appetizingly contained in a New York City street pothole.

NEXT: Call Hasselhoff

Baywatch - Almafi Drive, Los Angeles

This Baywatch lifeguard runs down Almafi Drive in Los Angeles to save a drowning person. Thankfully, the protruding hand is just a well-constructed prop.

NEXT: Planting a garden in the street

Gardener - Côte du Vesinet, Montreal

With the street’s potholes serving as makeshift planters, this unlikely garden scene was captured on Côte du Vesinet in Montreal. 

NEXT: Bathtime

Bubble Bath - Rue de St-Firmin, Montreal

Taken on Rue de St-Firmin in Montreal, this photo features a baby watching the progress of his “rubber duckies” in a pothole bubble bath.

NEXT: Diving headfirst into a pothole

Diver - Ave. Musse, Montreal

This Canadian street -- Avenue Musset in Montreal -- sets the backdrop for the graceful preparatory pose of a professional diver.

NEXT: Puppy love

Dog Wash - Alfred Street, Los Angeles

A woman washes a tiny dog on Alfred Street in Los Angeles, while other dogs, with their owners, queue up for similar treatment. 

NEXT: Frying donuts on the road

Doughnuts - Rue Belanger, Montreal

A baker uses Montreal’s Rue Belanger as the setting for his daily donut routine. A circular pothole acts as the donuts’ deep fryer.

NEXT: Winemaking in the street

Winemaking - Rue St-Zotique, Montreal

A relaxed winemaker uses the irritating pothole on Rue St-Zonique in Montreal as a receptacle for grapes, which he stomps into wine, as if drawing on the old saying, “turning lemons into lemonade.”

NEXT: Pothole spa

Pedicure - Rue Queen, Montreal

A woman visits a pedicurist who’s made her shop on the street at Rue Queen in Montreal. The pothole makes the perfect basin for water and suds. 

NEXT: Dive to the bottom of a pothole?

Scuba Diver - Avenue Beaconsfield, Montreal

A scuba diver points down at a pothole filled with sludge-water -- as if he’s spotted a terrifying underwater creature, or perhaps more realistically, a second layer of cement inches below the water.

NEXT: Filling a pothole with celebrity handprints

Walk of Fame - New Hampshire, Los Angeles

On New Hampshire Avenue, a movie star-type plants his hands in cement while a photographer, videographer, bodyguard and model surround him. 

NEXT: Cooling beer in a pothole

Beer & BBQ - Rue Waverly, Montreal

Here, a couple uses the Montreal city street’s pothole as an ice bucket for beer at a laid-back barbecue.

NEXT: Fishing in the street

Fisherman, Henri-Julien Avenue, Montreal

The fisherman on this Montreal roadway, Henri-Julien Avenue in Montreal, lifts an improbably large fish out of the shallow pothole.

NEXT: Laundering the old-fashioned way

Laundry - Rue St-Urbain, Montreal

This woman sits washing her laundry, recalling the days of old when washing machines did not yet exist.

NEXT: Chilling the champagne for party-time

Champagne - Tecumseth Street, Toronto

Three party-ready women stand around champagne bottles on ice, eagerly popping off one of the bottles’ corks.

NEXT: Santa came early this year, kids

Santa Claus - Tremaine Street, Los Angeles

In this reimagined pothole scene, Santa Claus dips his cookies into a trough of milk.

To see more of Davide Luciano and Claudia Ficca's photographs, visit their personal sites.

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