CALIFORN-IR

CALIFORN-IR Simon Puschmann devotes himself to IR photography and offers the viewer an exciting and at the same time disruptive perspective into contemporary California. These works were created in Feb 2022 with a converted SonyA7R3 at 550nm, which allows the depiction of light beyond the visible spectrum. Puschmann chooses the wavelength that is visible to the human eye as yellow. In ancient times, this color was associated with the sun and thus with life and growth as well as with the prosperity of society, an association that culminated under Louis XIV with the sun covered in gold leaf as a sign of his claim to power. Sunlight, perceived as yellow, gives warmth, light and growth, but the color yellow is also the color of sulfur, desert sand, or withered plants that have lost their chlorophyll and therefore are no longer able to perform photosynthesis. By using the color yellow instead of the color red that is usually associated with photography, Puschmann offers an unusual and at the same time irritating perspective. Innocent snapshots taken from a car can be read as escape scenarios, street scenes, or views of the landscape passing by suggest the end of time, landscape photographs of coastal strips and mountain ranges pretend to be lunar-like landscapes and photographs of trees in the mountains or solitary trees on the coast become admonitory sculptures that tell of our nightmarish future despite their dreamlike beauty.