Dreamscapes
Hannah invites Fallon Skye Howarth to express her most recent photography project ‘Dreamscapes’ and shine a new light on the sea life around us, literally.
Fallon Skye, Cluster of Mussels
Fallon is a recent Marine and Natural History Photography Graduate from Falmouth University. For this project ‘Dreamscapes’, which is a series of small landscapes, Fallon used her wide knowledge of marine wildlife and wanted to take a step further to explore vibrant colours with the use of Ultraviolet light. She explains her project in more depth.
“Around us lies a different world. Hidden under a wavelength not seen with the human eye, ultraviolet light is a band under the electromagnetic spectrum. The natural world produces the beautiful phenomenon, fluorescence, when excited by ultraviolet light. True ultraviolet light is invisible to the human eye. What we see is a by-product of ultraviolet – visible fluorescence. Combining ultraviolet induced visible fluorescence with the natural world has infinite results. Dreamscapes is just a fragment of this other world.”
The ‘cluster of muscles’ was the start and inspiration for the rest of her project and explains that it was “one of the first times I tried UV rock-pooling, I came out with this photo of a cluster of mussels. This was the photo that sparked my idea for Dreamscapes. It seemed as though I was taking a peek into a different world...”
Fallon Skye, The Treacle Sponge of the Sea
Fallon Skye, Just Another Brick in the Wall
Fallon Skye, The Star of the Show
Ultraviolet light can’t be seen by the human eye. There are two types of ultraviolet photography, UV reflectance and UV fluorescence. UV reflectance is what many photographers use, they use specific camera sensors for this technique, to create a different/artistic view within everyday natural lighting with the help of filters and lenses to reflect and create this affect. However, Fallon explored UV fluorescence photography which enables her to use a regular camera, however, the surroundings must be in complete darkness and the use of only a UV torch. This requires a lot of precision to highlight the subject with the light then bouncing back to the camera, bringing out the amazing ray of colours.
Fallon helps me to understand ultraviolet a little bit more and explains that all materials contain different properties and because of that, they fluoresce differently. For example, paper and white cotton fluoresce bright, so you need to have a shorter exposure. Dirt and leaves don’t emit as much so you need a brighter light or a longer exposure. She also explains that the glow of colours from certain seaweed isn’t produced by the colour pigment itself, but the transparent layers that they have. This is mainly within the tips of the plants and then the UV light reflected is bent in a certain way that reveals the iridescent colours. Water can also be a major factor in the way a certain subject reflects ultraviolet light because of the different wavelengths.
Fallon Skye, Seaweed Trees
Fallon Skye, Look at this Lichen
Fallon Skye, Strawberry Anemone
Fallon discovered Ultraviolet Induced Visible Fluorescence photography as well as Infrared photography during her second year of university, inspired by photographer Craig Burrows and then developed further into UV photography for her final third year project. As much as Fallon wanted to go beyond her comfort zone and use her diving skills for it, she had to adapt to her surroundings and develop from the rock pools within Falmouth. It was best for her to shoot at night when the tide was at its lowest, walking over the rockpools, trying to find camouflaged subjects light up with the use of her UV torch. Fallon explained her process as ‘light painting’ to get the perfect focus on the subjects and the wildlife surrounding it in the pools and then finally presenting them as C Type Kodak Metallic prints, making the colours more vibrant and iridescent, taking you into the ‘Dreamscape’.
Fallon “I truly have fallen in love with UV photography. You cannot always predict how subjects will fluoresce - it’s always a surprising adventure. Dreamscapes and UV photography has been one of those revelations I will always continue in my photographic practice.”
Fallon Skye, Blood Red Seaweed
Fallon Skye, Glitter Stream
Fallon Skye, Where Limpets once were…