Alien

‘Alien’ is an experimental series about extraterrestrial landscapes & an ongoing study of infrared photography.

My last two infrared projects ’The Strange Series’ & ’The Coral Mountains Series’ have all been shot on a modified digital camera. This camera enables me to capture a combination of infrared & visible light. Both spectrums of light are combined in one picture. 

For ‘The Alien Series’ I was working in addition to the modified camera with a 590nm filter on my lenses that filters out all the wavelengths of visible light below 590nm. The result was that the pictures consisted of less visible light than the pictures of the infrared projects I shot before. The raw images of this series tend to be more monotone & less colorful. 

In late August I spent 3 days roaming & hiking around the high plateau of the Queyras National Park in south-east France right next to the Italian border. On altitudes between 2500 to 3000m & above the tree line it felt like wandering around the surface of an alien planet. No trees, just rocks, grass & a few little lakes as far as the eye can see. Clouds in between.  A strange atmosphere.

I sensed potential for another infrared project & started documenting the shapes, structures & landscapes of the nationalpark with my modified camera on the hikes I did to the surrounding peaks of the area. I used this already otherworldly appearing landscapes as a visual base to create a series with an even more surreal character. Through infrared technology & peculiar color shifting I wanted to create a feeling of extraterrestialism.

Creating a world that we don’t know. A world in which we are strangers. A surreal idea. 

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Nationalpark Queyras, France / 2020

Photography / Design / Art Direction by Roland Kraemer

Find this series on Behance