A New Infrared View of the Dolomites by Paolo Pettigiani Shows Craggy Landscapes in Cotton Candy Colors

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.”

– William Blake (The marriage of Heaven and Hell)

Italian photographer Paolo Pettigiani made a wonderful series of images of the Dolomites in infrared as part of his project #InfraScapes.

The 26-year-old has been practicing photography since the age of 11 and has decided to specialize in infrared photography to make the invisible visible.

The idea is to show what is not visible to the human eye or to make the visible in a more unexpected form.

Under his lens and his filters, the landscapes take indeed a strange aspect, a fantastic world with the pink trees.
Infrared photography uses a special film or light sensor that processes the usually not-visible wavelengths of infrared light (specifically near-infrared, as opposed to far-infrared, which is used in thermal imaging.) The resulting images from Pettigiani depict the stands of coniferous trees as watermelon-pink, while surfaces that don’t reflect IR light stay more true to their nature hues.

“Talking about infrared, this is the first real project as a means of artistic expression,” Pettigiani shares. “What I like about this kind of photography is making visible something invisible. My aim is to show something recognizable under a new unexpected and personal point of view.”

Pettigiani also offers prints of his work via Lumas.

h/t:thisiscolossal