The Unseen

About

In The Unseen Ed Thompson has set out to explore the boundaries of perception, whether they are things outside our visual spectrum or events that go unnoticed or unreported.

A respected British photographer, his work has focused on various subjects over the years – covering environmental issues, socio-political movements and subcultures.  In his work he often tries to be as intimate with a group as possible, to empathise with them and try to see what they saw in themselves. But there are still limits to our sight; a documentary photographer can only photograph what they can see.

In 2010, while researching ways of documenting the haunted village of Pluckley in Kent, he found articles claiming that ghosts could be revealed with infrared photography. Under normal conditions we see a visible wavelength of light between 400-700 nanometers, the range of light most cameras record. After some research he found that Infrared film with the correct filtration can reveal light between 750-1000 nanometers, it allows the invisible to be photographed.

After photographing The Village (2011) with 6 rolls of medium format Kodak Aerochrome film Thompson researched what this curious film had originally been used for. From Kodak advertisements he devised a wider project using some of the last 36 dead-stock rolls of Kodak Aerochrome in existence – pushing its boundaries to reveal the­ unseen. 

Photographs include The Red Forest of Chernobyl, Aerial Photographs of London and experimental medical photography.

The project was supported by Arts Council Engalnd and Four Corners.