Giving You The Look

wired:

archiemcphee:

Dr. Frankenstein harnessed the power of lightning to bring his giant monster to life. Photographer Robert Buelteman uses thousands of volts of electricity to create these dreamy photos of plants and flowers. He might not be a mad scientist himself, but he’d probably get along quite well with others. They could exchange tips and tricks for playing with electricity.

The process that produces images like the ones you see here is called Kirlian photography and was made famous in 1939 by Russian inventor Semyon Davidovich Kirlian who accidentally discovered the process through experimentation:

Kirlian believed that the image he was studying might be a human aura, if such an aura were to exist. It is now well understood that the coronal discharges identified as Kirlian auras are the result of well-understood stochastic electric ionization processes, and are greatly affected by many factors, including the voltage and frequency of the stimulus, the pressure with which a person or object touches the imaging surface, the local humidity around the object being imaged, how well grounded the person or object is, and other local factors affecting the conductivity of the person or object being imaged, including oils, sweat, bacteria, and other ionizing contaminants typically found on living tissues.

Buelteman’s own process in painstaking. First he carves at the plants with surgical tools until they are thin and sheer. Then he places a sheet of transparency film below a metal sheet floating in liquid silicone. He puts the plants on top of the film and connects them, with clamps, to a source of electrical current. Buelteman then sends up to 80,000 volts through the plants to capture the resulting glow on film.

Buelteman works in complete darkness. After shocking the plants, he goes one step further and paints with light across the shape of the plant to add additional illumination and detail to the image. While viewers might be inclined to assume otherwise, the creation of these beautiful images of radiant, almost spectral plants does not involve any digital manipulation.

Buelteman says, “While I remain fascinated by the organic design of simple flowers and plants, I have become increasingly drawn to the power of abstraction made available through the manipulation of color, form, and light.”

Visit My Modern Metropolis to view more of Robert Buelteman’s awesome photographs.

Positively electric.

9 months ago

1. gypsyl0vmagic reblogged this from usefulsoul
2. kemobleh reblogged this from pettysnatch
3. pettysnatch reblogged this from archiemcphee
4. marisathann likes this
5. reginaahhh reblogged this from kimb0-slice
6. kimb0-slice reblogged this from subconsciousflow
7. solaryacht-plotwade likes this
8. forestwhisper likes this
9. mysticdoe reblogged this from wethinkwedream
10. thestrandedfashionista reblogged this from a-flying-narwhal
11. littlebitinluvwithu reblogged this from sarahroseee
12. herpderpin-all-over-the-world reblogged this from wethinkwedream
13. nusta reblogged this from fattyfalldown
14. nomadic-wildflower reblogged this from wethinkwedream
15. chrisa511 likes this
16. dom72 likes this
17. fattyfalldown reblogged this from world-realities
18. igotrage likes this
19. anelevatedconsciousness likes this
20. dirty-soapbox likes this
21. thegirlwiththelightningtattoo likes this
22. marilenahasanaccount likes this
23. a-flying-narwhal reblogged this from consciousnesscrisis
24. consciousnesscrisis reblogged this from empathy-vs-apathy-nyc
25. tracij1701 reblogged this from texasavidreader
26. double-d-ed-boy likes this
27. sinonmyface likes this
28. sinonmyface reblogged this from spiritmolecule
29. konnichiwakam likes this
30. greapsoup reblogged this from world-realities
31. texasavidreader reblogged this from tapme
32. brendamn reblogged this from world-realities
33. world-realities reblogged this from wethinkwedream
34. xjkandrewsx likes this
35. rosarosina likes this
36. marsdash reblogged this from wethinkwedream
37. laviesupernova likes this
38. undefinedinfinity reblogged this from wethinkwedream
39. exsitinglegend reblogged this from wethinkwedream
40. anorange likes this
41. milaanos likes this
42. tapme reblogged this from our-photons-collide
43. vividshit reblogged this from wethinkwedream
44. sleepwiththechaos likes this
45. universe-secrets reblogged this from spiritmolecule
46. vituperativeaaroncann likes this
47. freemelissa89 likes this
48. ginandjack likes this
49. thepoemthatdoesntrhyme reblogged this from neohiburnicus
50. courtofsatyrs reblogged this from spiritmolecule
51. Show more notesLoading...