Jenna Dosch/ViewLas Vegas resident Christian Slanec works on his laptop while surrounded by prints of images he created using an Epson scanner. Advertisement

Christian Slanec discovered his most recent passion by accident.

For years, the 45-year-old worked with fine art photography. One afternoon last fall, Slanec was scanning his 8x10 negatives to save as digital images. He placed one of the negatives on his flatbed Epson scanner in his home office and pushed scan before he remembered to close the scanner lid. What he stumbled upon was a unique art form. The background of the image came out completely dark, enhancing the photo.

"The image just popped out," Slanec said. "It was unbelievable."

He started to scan flowers, food, bird's nests, rocks and anything else that tickled his creativity. Slanec since has turned the art form, dubbed scanography, into his full-time job. He hosted his first art exhibit in August and will auction his work off at Odyssey Las Vegas, a four-day food, wine and art event at the Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Nov. 6-9.

Before Slanec positioned food on his scanner, he worked as a chef at restaurants at some of the Strip hotel-casinos, including Treasure Island and Rio. He first cooked at the Hilton in Vienna, where he was born and raised. He moved to Las Vegas in 1991.

Slanec was forced to retire three years ago after he was diagnosed with a rapidly debilitating form of multiple sclerosis. His fingers started to tingle, making it tough to carry trays of food. Soon, it became more and more difficult for him to walk. Slanec gingerly walks around the house and rides a motorized scooter when he's out of the house.

The disease also put a halt on Slanec's photography adventures. He's been intrigued by photography since he was a young boy; he tagged along with his father, who took photos for the police department's forensic division.

"I think that stuck with me," said Slanec, who later studied visual arts in New York City under famed photographers Oliver Gagliani and John Sexton.

Slanec used to travel to South America to shoot photo essays, and he often hiked through the hills outside of Las Vegas with a large format camera on his back to capture the desert's beauty.

Slanec said multiple sclerosis may have taken him out of a commercial kitchen and kept him from the hard-to-reach photo opportunities, but it hasn't stopped him from creating art.

"I may be down, but I'm not out," he said. "You have to take what you're given in life and make the best of it. My love is nature, art and food. My scanography brings it all together."

Lani Dorlack, a southeast Las Vegas resident, recently bought two of Slanec's images. She discovered Slanec's artwork when she received a postcard of his work for Christmas.

"The detail that he's able to capture is just incredible," she said. "It's some of the most unique artwork I've seen from a local artist."

Slanec's art projects keep him busy with orders for prints coming in nearly every day and new ideas constantly coming to mind. Even trips to the grocery store turn into work. He eyes the piles of fruit and vegetables in search of a centerpiece for his latest art work.

"People look at me and think I'm crazy," Slanec said. "But it has to be perfect."

He assembles the produce, flowers, feathers or whatever else he's found on the scanner, leaves the lid open, flips off the lights and clicks scan.

The scanner records just two inches beyond the glass. The scanner photographs the image from multiple angles in one long exposure, Slanec said. The result is a detailed colored photo.

Slanec then moves the image into Photoshop, where he touches up the image pixel by pixel. It takes him about a week to clean up dust and other imperfections in one print, he said.