CALIFORN-IR

California: The Dream Factory, land of Counterculture & Innovation. There is no other landscape in the USA that has shaped several generations of mass culture just like California has. In his new series CALIFORN-IR, Simon Puschmann devotes himself to infrared photography and offers the viewer an exciting and at the same time disruptive perspective into contemporary California.

45 works were created in February 2022 with a converted SonyA7R3 at 550nm, which allows the depiction of light beyond the visible spectrum. Chlorophyll, which forms organisms that engage in photosynthesis appears green in the wave spectrum of the human eye, while under conditions of infrared photography it is either transparent - an observation first published by Robert Williams Wood in 1919 - or you can assign one of the seven spectral colors in post-processing.

Puschmann chooses the wavelength that is visible to the human eye as yellow. In ancient times, this color was associated with the sun and thus with life and growth as well as with the prosperity of society, an association that culminated under Louis XIV with the sun covered in gold leaf as a sign of his claim to power. Sunlight, perceived as yellow, gives warmth, light and growth, but the color yellow is also the color of sulfur, desert sand, or withered plants that have lost their chlorophyll and therefore are no longer able to perform photosynthesis.

To read and see more, please visit my virtual gallery: californ-ir.xyz

Alexandra Neuss

Post Production: Harvest Digital Agriculture