My approach to my PhD research for this project is to use a form of multispectral storytelling. This will start by using different parts of the light spectrum (not just normal visible light) to tell an ecological story. So far the images I have created have been insightful in their otherworldly colours and brilliant luminosity. This I feel is the beginning of a longer study into the multispectral world of these species, I hope this will give me an insight into the visual world of butterflies. Using UV IVF photography.
Ultraviolet-Induced Visible Fluorescence (UVIVF), is a specialist technique that captures the visible light (glow) emitted by a subject when it is exposed to ultraviolet radiation. This process reveals vivid, incandescent colors and details that are normally invisible to the naked eye.
I have always been interested in UV and IR photography, and having access and a reason to use this for my research has been wonderful.
Using, experimenting with this beginning to understand the world of multispectral light and the process has been like looking into another world. So instead of being ‘this fluoresces under UV wow that’s lovely’, I want to say look “This is what humans see” “This is what butterflies respond to” ‘and "This is what is disappearing”. I want to convey the contrast of the two worlds, and now the absence; with hope to be able to be a visual translator between these two worlds.
Using Infrared photography I plan to show these two perspectives: UV and normal human view. Highlighting beautiful landscapes where butterflies once thrived. This will include; Agricultural land, Urban edges and Rewilding sites in the UK.
Some Infrared images; this might symbolise relevant factors to do with climate change (Heating up of the planet / Global warming ) habitat destruction; Climate pressure, Overheating ecosystems, Invisible damages.
Original Seascape With converted infrared Photoshop June 26
Blue Tiger Butterfly
butterfly white Orchid under UV Light
butterfly White Orchid
White orchid normal light
Small white UV On pink rose
Small white UV
Mother of Perl uv light
Blue morpho uv lightuvlight
meadow brown
Uv light meadow brown
meadow brown
Blue Tiger Butterfly UV IVF
Blue Tiger Butterfly UV IVF
Reflected UV Can shows us (as best possible, as humans can't see in UV) how insects actually see our world, not fluorescence. Using a UV-pass filters / Modified camera /Static subjects only (plants, wings)
“A translation attempt — always partial, always flawed”
Multispectral Storytelling; As I will be sequencing the images intentionally. An example of my narrative structure might be;
Visible flower – familiar, beautiful
UVIVF flower – glowing, alive, coded
Shed butterfly wing (UV) – presence without the body
IR landscape – empty, overheated
Visible absence – nothing there
I am not saying that “Butterflies are declining” I will be letting the viewer feel it. As an artist-researcher working with ecology, not on it, I hope this may help with research NGO on the conservation or UK landscape and the beauty of nature that lives within it.
This research will employ multispectral photographic practices as a form of ecological translation, using visible light, ultraviolet-induced fluorescence, and infrared imaging to explore how butterfly–plant relationships extend beyond human perception.
Ethical constraints informed the methodology; UV imaging was limited to plants, shed wings, and deceased specimens, avoiding exposure of live insects. The multispectral approach is used not to simulate insect vision directly, but to foreground the partiality of human seeing and the ecological consequences of what remains unseen.
Car park brewery at night converted to infrared in Photoshop June 26
Shot taken in aeroplane over England on the way back from Dublin converted to infrared in Photoshop June 26
Photos of English landscape taken from aeroplane convert converted to infrared in Photoshop June 26
Black Alpine Swallowtail/ Normal Human vision
Black Alpine Swallowtail/ /UV IVF Image
