These brisk landscapes of the scenic Norwegian countryside are made surreal with the use of infrared film. The work of photographer Yann Philippe, he used an infrared-converted camera to capture these supernatural scenes, where forests are rendered crimson, but leaving the skies and water a cool blue. Infrared or not, it’s impossible not to be impressed by the landscapes and vistas of Norway, a country that is high on our list for travel destinations.
The technique works because chlorophyll reflects near-infrared light very strongly, so anything green comes out blazing in a converted camera while water and sky, which absorb infrared, stay dark and cool. Kodak’s Aerochrome film once did this for the military and for surveyors, and its false-color look has since been adopted by landscape photographers who want the familiar to feel slightly alien. Philippe shot this series in and around Bergen, with the funicular railway, the wooden houses of the fjord villages and the birch forests all rendered in the same deep crimson. Via DesignYouTrust:
Infrared landscape photography is a small obsession of ours. Compare Philippe’s Norway with an otherworldly infrared Oregon, the Dolomites in color infrared, California in infrared and Richard Mosse’s infrared Congo, the series that brought the look into fine art. Norway itself appears throughout our guide to the most beautiful places on Earth.
