Cornwall is one of the most beautiful, culturally rich holiday destinations in the UK. As international travel has been sporadic and many holidays abroad have been cancelled due to Covid-19, this year Cornwall has seen a large influx of tourists, desperately squeezing every last drop of summer out of an otherwise gloomy year. When you ask people about Cornwall, many think about landmarks like Truro Cathedral, Chapel Rock at Perranporth, or the Minack Theatre. These sites have been photographed so often that they are familiar to people across the country. Even beautiful images of Wheal Coates run the risk of disappearing into the sea of tourists’ snaps. While stunning, these photos are seen so often they risk becoming stale. I want to help people fall in love with Cornwall again. Using infrared cameras and filters, I hope to show these famous landmarks in a way they haven’t been seen before – quite literally in another light. Through this I hope to light the flame of curiosity in both residents and tourists and encourage them to explore Cornwall with a fresh mindset.
As well as the natural beauty of the county, Cornwall has a rich cultural history. From tin mines to Arthurian legends, we are surrounded by the marks of humanity. I aim to use the contrast between natural foliage and manmade structures to highlight the permanence of beauty. Cornwall was beautiful before us, and will be beautiful after us. Have we marred the landscape? Have we left scars of humanity on nature, or are we an intrinsic part of what makes Cornwall beautiful?
Some of the main landmarks I am considering are Truro Cathedral, Minack Theatre, Wheal Coates at St Agnes, Perranporth beach, the Eden Project, and St Michael’s Mount. There are other places I would like to go to, like Tintagel and Bodmin Moor, but this is heavily reliant on the weather, accessibility, and the changing coronavirus restrictions. If we go into a full lockdown I may be unable to get to some places, so I will try to photograph these places as soon as possible.
One thing I would quite like to capture is the changing leaves as we go through autumn. This would be experimental – colour is reliant on visible light, and if I am blocking most or all visible light in favour of infrared light, it may be that no colours come through. The 850nm and 950nm filters block all visible light, so I don’t expect there to be much difference between the different coloured leaves. Conversely, the 590nm filter blocks only some visible light, with the longer wavelengths (reds and oranges) still passing through onto the sensor. I wonder if the bright autumnal foliage will still appear as vibrant while the shorter wavelengths of the green grass remain a ghostly white. I want to learn more about the science of infrared photography and how invisible light is represented visually in a photograph – photographers draw with light, but what happens when we draw with light that we cannot see? I will mostly be using digital, but I have bought some infrared film to experiment with. This will be purely black and white, so I will plan any film shoots with the science of light in mind.
As infrared photography is completely new to me, I will have to spend some time learning how to get the most out of my camera, how to capture the images I want, and how to edit them in Photoshop. Understanding the editing process is vital – the unnatural colours picked up by the camera run the risk of being over-processed and looking fake. One technique utilised by infrared photographers is to swap various colour channels – I would like to try this, but I am a little apprehensive. While I want to encourage people to look at Cornwall from another perspective, it’s important that this perspective isn’t manipulated beyond recognition. I may have to experiment to find where to draw the line.
I will present my body of work in an online exhibition - due to the uncertainty of the coronavirus situation, I am unsure whether a physical exhibition would be possible. The primary exhibition will be on a website for our entire group to showcase their work, which will also be printed as a book. I will also have a dedicated Instagram account and will post both there and on the group account to promote my work.
Richard Mosse
One particular photographer I have been inspired by is Richard Mosse, whose documentary photography of war in Africa is hauntingly beautiful and thought-provoking. He is one of the photographers who utilises false colour with his infrared work, so maintaining the authenticity of his sombre message may have had its challenges, although I think the stark contrast between nature and human conflict emphasises the brutality of war.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there was an civil war until 2003, causing the deaths of over 5 million people since 1998. Tensions still remain. This was a huge humanitarian crisis but we in the UK have heard almost nothing about it. To us, it was an entire world away. Through infrared film's ability to see the unseen wavelengths of light, Mosse wanted to highlight the unseen reality of the Second Congo War.
Mosse chose to use the recently-discontinued Kodak Aerochrome infrared film, in part because of its ability to distinguish between foliage and camouflage. In fact, this type of film was created in the USA during World War 2 as a tool to help identify enemy troops. The chlorophyll in the plants reflects infrared light, which shows up on this film as a vibrant pink. Conversely, the camouflage troops would wear absorbs much of this light, so they show up noticeably darker on the images. This was therefore the perfect film for Mosse to use when capturing the Congolese army and rebel soldiers hiding in plain sight.
All of Mosse's work in both his Infra (2011) series and The Enclave (2013) film is analogue. The colours are unedited, it is simply read from the negative and printed. This helps maintain the integrity of both his work and his message - nothing is adapted to fit his narrative, it's just simply documented.
While I am trying to showcase the beauty of Cornwall in infrared light and not war, Mosse's photography is particularly inspiring for its ability to make us question the accuracy of human perception. Sometimes situations or places aren't quite as we initially see them to be. There's a layer of meaning that we can only understand when we approach from a different light. With Cornwall's landscapes, there is a vibrant history, a depth, and a beauty we can't see unless we open our eyes.
Kailtin Kelly
On a similar endeavour to my own, Kaitlin Kelly captures ethereal landscapes with her photography in order to show these famous landmarks in a new light. When travelling around the world, she always wanted her photos to be different to everyone else's; she has clearly accomplished this.
Kaitlin's technique relies heavily on post-processing to achieve this signature look - she shoots in RAW, swaps the red and blue channels, and desaturates any remaining red tones. This is definitely a technique I will experiment with. I would, however, like a range of tones throughout my images so I will apply a variety of techniques to achieve different looks.
One thing I find quite interesting is in the first image below - the castle and the surrounding landscape are the same colour, which is very different to Mosse's work. In the subsequent images, Kelly artfully captures the near-black water and sky as they absorb infrared light, creating a particularly haunting contrast between the water and the foliage.
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