Exploring Chernobyl Red Forest: Infrared Photography Project
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- In this video I talk you through how I researched infrared photography projects and photographed 'The Red Forest' of Pripyat Chernobyl on the colour infrared film Kodak Aerochrome. I also photographed around Chernobyl nuclear power plant and some of the surrounding villages. If you love analog documentary photography, you haven't seen Chernobyl photographs like this before.
It was part of 'The Unseen' a long form film photography project I photographed on only 45 rolls of Kodak Aerochrome 120 medium format film (and 7 rolls of 35mm film) from 2010-2016.
I made the work on a Mamiya RZ67 and a Pentax K1000. The work eventually became my sold out book The Unseen: An Atlas Of Infrared Plates.
I am releasing two affordable, signed and limited (100 edition) 11x14 inch window mounted digital c-type photographs from The Red Forest. You can get them from Kingsford Gallery: kingsfordgallery.square.site/...
I hope you enjoyed that and if want to see my videos please do subscribe. I'm reasonably new to RUclips still and it would be cooler if you did:
ruclips.net/user/edthomps....
#infraredphotography #infrared #documentaryphotographer
00:00 Introduction
01:09 Researching The Red Forest, how I made it with Kodak Aerochrome
03:40 Photographing infrared colour film in Pripyat Chernobyl
05:17 Looking at the photo book The Unseen: An Atlas of Infrared Plates
06:30 Prometheus?
08:23 Sold out book. Now making affordable prints for sale
09:10 Window mounted prints of Chernobyl
10:57 Looking at Kodak Aerochrome transparencies on a lightbox
Awesome as always Ed!
Thanks Asa! That's very kind of you. It was fun to think about that project 12 years after making it! That's right... 2012 was 12 years ago 😅
Fascinating story and wonderful imagery. :D
Thanks Michael. Not bad for 6 rolls of 120 shot in a day! 😉 I think that's why research is so important, it can hone your perception so you can focus on things that are relevant to the story you are trying to tell. Things you might miss otherwise.
@@PicturesOnMyMind Completely agree. 🙂
Glad I got The Unseen. Great amount of depth in the book and in the details here in this video.
Thank you! I have 6 rolls of 35mm Kodak Aerochrome.... having a think about what I might shoot with it. It's been frozen since 2016, no idea what state its in! ha!
@@PicturesOnMyMind You could give it to me ;)
Oh man, i was actually thinking about buying the book for months, next time if i think about buying a book, i should just buy it instead of just thinking 😅
Really great to learn about your process. I didn‘t think much about the impact of research to ones photography, but it makes total sense!
Amazing work, looking forward to the next video!:)
Thank you. I ended up just putting the price up to £150 a copy for the last few just because I've got so few left and I don't want to sell them! Ha! There won't be a second edition in that format 🥲 I did get tagged in a post on Instagram yesterday by someone in America who bought a copy for $60, so there are copies floating around out there now and again.
@@PicturesOnMyMind i‘ll keep an eye pealed for sure.
Have you thought about doing another infrared project? Aerochrome is way too expensive at the moment, but there are always the digital option or trichrome.
@@SnowmansApartment not really, although I have a handful of 35mm Aerochrome in the freezer since 2016 and it'd be fun to use them up!
YES! NEW VIDEOS!!! :)
Yes, took a while but I managed to do one this month. Filmed in one take, but its the editing that takes forever!
I'm so happy I found this video. What an amazing journey you've been on!
Thank you! Yes, it's been a trip so far!
Fascinating. Love the shot of the big wheel.
Thanks Daniel, yes that was a surreal moment. Like a signifier of fun and joy in an abandoned town.
I love how aerochrome looks. Thanks for sharing. There's a Russian photographer who shoots digital infrared who did a series at Chernobyl that was pretty cool.
I remember seeing that a few years after this. It was all a very cold blue digital infrared wasn't it?
@@PicturesOnMyMindYes...he shoots a lot in 720nm (as do I), but I think might have done some in 665nm. The image he did of one of the more adventurous local foxes is one of the more popular from that series.
Excellent images! I went there myself in June in 2017. Spent two days inside the zone, and shot a ton of images. It was a special experience. Climbing the Duga Radar was pretty sketchy but you have to die of something, right?
Ha, yes, indeed! I went in 2012. There was a lot of hype about that year!
This is awesome! Great too see the Chanel is doing well too - Bracken
Thanks Braken. Yep, I haven't posted much this year so far but I quit UCA today so I'll be making more videos from next week and freelancing more! 📷
@@PicturesOnMyMind ah I bet thats a massive weight off of your shoulders, hope it gives you time to do stuff you want to do! looking forward to seeing future content
Lovely video! The shots are fantastic, and your storytelling is great. Especially love the Ferris wheel shot at 6:14. It's rare to have such a well produced video exploring a series of Aerochrome shots and their story, the film is both widely known and yet still so niche. Do you have any plans to work with digital infrared for future projects?
No way thank you that's very kind. And I'm always surprised when people find my videos! I've always worked making projects which means when I finish the project I'm generally finished. That said I've got six rolls of 35 mml Kodak aerochrome in my freezer for 10 years now. So I might have a little play at some point later in the year! I've seen some people getting good results with digital infrared. But I just find the whole using Photoshop and lightroom to get results like aerochrome is a little bit one-dimensional. In my book The Unseen all of my projects generally had some conceptual reason for being shot on infrared. I wasn't just using infrared as an affectation. And hey man if you like the channel please tell your friends! I guess it's a kind of word of mouth operation I'm running here! Ha!
@@PicturesOnMyMind I see, thank you for the response! I look forward to seeing what you shoot next.
@@spectrazone I just checked out your channel wow man you've got some phenomenal results! 💯 Yeah it works really well in video particularly doesn't it?
@@PicturesOnMyMind Heyy, thank you so much! It's been an interesting process figuring out how to get digital infrared looking somewhat accurate to Aerochrome. Certainly not an exact replication, but closer than a lot of what I've seen, and good enough for my purposes. When I'm less busy, I plan to make more videos on the subject; I'm honestly surprised there isn't more artistic IR video use here on RUclips (not even just in the Aerochrome color model, but even with some of the more conventional and easier to achieve digital IR styles.) There's definitely a lot of untapped potential there for otherworldly video that I'd love to showcase.
The grim 40th anniversary is approaching. Fantastic project! I’m originally from Ukraine and I remember very vividly the day Chornobyl catastrophe had happened. • When the Russians attacked my home country and invaded 🇺🇦 Ukraine in February 2022 they have advanced fast and occupied Chornobyl nuclear power station (which is against the international law). Many of their dumb troops where stationed … in the RED FOREST!!! 😂 I bet half of them probably are dead by now