Snippets

As I was in the West End last week I went over to the new Photographers Gallery just off Oxford Street to have a look at Richard Mosse's extraordinary infrared photographs from the Congo (see the previous post). The good news is they look stunning in the huge prints on show. I was very surprised by just how small the grain in the film is, so I have to assume the aerochrome was actually developed using the 'correct' aerochrome process rather than the E6 most of us used. The bad news is that there are only a handful of the prints on display and I had hoped to see more.

So, I went down to the bookshop in the basement and chatted with the very helpful sales assistant. I had hoped to get a copy of either of the books of Mosse's photos but that was not to be. They are completely sold out, not just at the Gallery but everywhere it seems, and are now selling for high prices.

Despite being disappointed by this (and kicking myself for not buying his Infra book online from Aperture when I could) I got to thinking that this took the book into the realm of photographic collectors items. They may well be the first books of infrared photography to truly get there, and prize-winning photography at that. I know there are a couple of other IR photo books that go for high prices but I think these are in a class of their own.

Changing wavelength, I am getting a little worried that FLIR's inexpensive iPhone add-on thermal camera may be having difficulties. The general consensus in the Apple rumour mill is that the iPhone 6 will be along soon and will have a larger form factor. This means that the FLIR One, as publicised, will be designed to use an obsolescent smart phone body. I still hope that the promise it showed when previewed at CES in January will be realised and it would definitely be a game changer for a wider use of thermal imaging.

Richard Mosse: Börse and London

Great to see that Richard Mosse won the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for 2014 for the Enclave, colour infrared photographs he took in the Congo and exhibited in the Irish Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

His photos are now on show in London, which is close enough that I may at last get to see them. They're at the Photographers Gallery until June 22nd.

All About Imaging: Transactions

All About Imaging: Transactions, according to its agenda, is an interdisciplinary symposium exploring new directions in contemporary imaging from the perspectives of art, science and technology. It takes place at the University of Westminster Harrow campus on May 22nd and 23rd.

I note it here mainly because of a session on day one which includes a presentation on 'Imaging the invisible in medicine' by Professor Francis Ring. Prof Ring is one of the pioneers of thermal imaging, with a special interest in medical applications.

That said, there is much of interest, including the opening of the RPS PRS International Images for Science 2103 exhibition on the 22nd. The full schedule and more information can be found on the university's web site. Members of the Royal Photographic Society are entitled to a discounted registration fee.

Improvements to graphene detectors

Last June, I noted research in Singapore which promised a wide-ranging imaging sensor based on graphene. The hyperspectral detection of graphene ranges from ultraviolet to far infrared but there has been a problem with very low sensitivity of the single layer of carbon atoms.

A paper in Nature Nanotechnology, published on March 16 2014, outlines a method devised by researchers at the University of Michigan whereby electrons freed by photons hitting a first layer of graphene tunnel through an insulating barrier layer and into a second graphene layer. This affects current flowing through the second graphene layer and this is what is detected. The result is a dramatic increase in sensitivity as well as IR detectors that perform well at room temperatures. This is all explained in a press release from the University of Michigan. The 'trick' was to look into how the signal could be amplified, rather than making the signal itself stronger. (I haven't read the whole paper but I would ask what noise does this generate.)

"We can make the entire design super-thin," said Zhaohui Zhong, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan, and one of the inventors. "It can be stacked on a contact lens or integrated with a cell phone." This mention of contact lenses led the Register to ask "Want to see at night? Here comes the infrared CONTACT LENS".

A patent, 'Photodetector based on double layer heterostructures', has been applied for.

Richard Mosse 'The Enclave' exhibition in New York

Following on from his exhibition at the Venice Biennalle, Richard Mosse's colour infrared installation, The Enclave, is on show in New York until March 22nd. The venue is the Jack Shainman Gallery at 513 West 20th Street.

Mosse worked with cinematographer Trevor Tweeten using 16mm aerochrome (basically Color Infrared Ektachrome) to explore the war-torn eastern Congo. The resulting film was transferred to HD video. Here's how the exhibition press release describes the work:

The Enclave comprises six monumental double-sided screens installed in a large darkened chamber creating a physically immersive experience. This disorienting and kaleidoscopic installation is intended to formally parallel eastern Congo’s multifaceted conflict, confounding expectations and forcing the viewer to interact spatially from an array of differing viewpoints. The Enclave is an experiential environment that attempts to reconfigure the dictates of photojournalism and expanded video art.

The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 1000 to 1800.