Infra-Red Photography by Jeremy Barnard

Jeremy Barnard is a New England based photographer who has been taking photos for forty years.

“The new work I’ve been doing since 2006 is the infrared work. The infrared that I do isn’t startlingly surreal. Upon initial viewing, they look almost as if they are black and whites. But then you begin to notice some of the tonalities are reversed. A lot of people tend to think they are negative images or that they are solarized. I love the infrared. It has become my passion.

Our portion of the light spectrum that we can perceive is between 700 and 900 nanometers; just above that – from 900 to 1,200 nanometers – is the area of the light spectrum called near-infrared. What the army uses for night vision is heat infrared. We cannot with our eyes see near-infrared but there are species of animals, specifically insects, that can. Bees see infrared and some predatory birds can see infrared, including owls.

I am particularly interested in the fact that bees see it. I titled my infrared collection, “Through the Eyes of Bees.” What makes it interesting is that chlorophyll in plants is able to reflect infrared radiation almost 100 percent. Because leaves and organic things like plants and grasses reflect the radiation at almost 100 percent, they appear white.  A lot of the landscapes – people say to me, “Was this an ice storm?”  “Was this freshly fallen snow?” The photos end up looking a bit surreal.