The Unseen: touring exhibition
Thompson, Edward (2014) The Unseen: touring exhibition. [Exhibition/show, Photography]
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The Unseen is a creative investigation into the medium of infrared photography, presenting new photographic interpretations of experiments made by scientists in the 20th century and exploiting the potential of infrared photography to reveal what cannot be seen by other means.
Photographer Edward Thompson researched the history of infrared photography, identifying its many uses in 20th
century science, and beyond. Colour infrared film had over
1,800 documented applications, from medical photography of
veins and tissue specimens to astrophotography—and even as
a ghost-hunting tool. The start of Thompson’s interest in
infrared film coincided with the end of its manufacture. He
purchased some of the last ‘deadstock’ rolls of Kodak
Aerochrome III infrared film in existence and set about using them to photograph a variety of subjects, following ideas suggested by his research in the archive. He moved beyond a reproduction of the documented scientific applications of infrared photography to combine different techniques, push from the factual into the fictive, and comment critically upon contemporary issues. Thompson’s subjects include city pollution, the ‘red forest’ around Chernobyl, the effects of flood waters in India, and an unsettling series of images ‘making strange’ the Kent village of Pluckley where he had tried, and failed, to photograph ghosts as a child and which reveal the state of alienation of the modern world from its natural environment.
The photographs in The Unseen have been exhibited in a range of contexts and the research is published as a book, with photographs and text by Thompson. The research pushes the purposes and properties of infrared film to its scientific and conceptual limits.
| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| Arts Consultants | Francis Knight Arts Consultancy |
| Exhibition Catalogue Designer | Dominique Boessner |
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