Unseen Energy: The Infrared Garden
Carlos Vega is an indigenous Atacameño; his ancestors have lived in Chile’s Atacama Desert for thousands of years. The high-altitude desert is one of the driest places on earth, but during 40 years Carlos has cultivated a large garden of plants that heal and nourish. I encountered Carlos and his garden during an artist residency in northern Chile earlier this year.
I decided to photograph the garden with infrared technology. The idea was that revealing the usually invisible energy from the infrared part of the spectrum echoes the alchemy of energy exchanges and transformations that occur when plants absorb energy from the sun and soil and turn it into sources of energy for people and other living things. It is also a reminder that visible objects and processes are just a small subset of the universe that contains us. There are many powerful forces – some known, others yet to be discovered – that are beyond the perception of our five senses. Carlos’s sensitivity to obscure energies informs his choice of plants in the garden and how he cultivates them.
