The man who takes tech apart – so we can learn how to fix it

Todd McLellan wants his photographs of disassembled gadgets to help people understand how stuff works

By his own admission, photographer Todd McLellan was "kind of a weird kid". As an eight-year-old, the Canadian had a workbench in his bedroom, where he would use a hammer, a soldering iron and an oscilloscope to tinker around with household objects. He particularly enjoyed taking apart his brother's toy cars to try to see what was inside. "I thought the little seats were so cool," he says now. "But it was so disappointing there were no pedals or steering wheel. I was like: 'What - is that it?'"

McLellan rarely experiences the same disappointment now. For the past decade, the 42-year-old has earned a name for himself by taking apart everyday objects, neatly aligning their components, and photographing the results. "Some of them, I think there's going to be nothing to it, and I schedule two, three hours of my day to take them apart," he says. "And then I get started, and it's like: 'Oh, no. So many pieces.'"