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They are an incredible view into a world humans simply cannot see. 

A British photographer was able to capture the infrared images using a unique film.

Ed Thompson tracked down some of the last 36 dead-stock rolls of Kodak Aerochrome in existence for the project. 

The Red Forest (2012); uses infrared film to document the condition of the most radioactive forest in the world, after the wind from Chernobyl blew most of the radioactive fallout onto Wormwood Forest that was within the 10km surrounding the power station. Thompson says this image re-imagines the Ukraine in deep Soviet burgundy, something that has become eerily prophetic since 2012.

On April 26th 1986 there was an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, reactor number four spewed out huge amounts of radiation contaminating soil, water and atmosphere with the radiation equivalent to 200 times that of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

He says the aim of the project, called The Unseen, was to 'explore the boundaries of perception, whether they are things outside our visual spectrum or events that go unnoticed or unreported.'

In 2010, while researching ways of documenting the haunted village of Pluckley in Kent, he found articles claiming that ghosts could be revealed with infrared photography.  

Under normal conditions we see a visible wavelength of light between 400-700 nanometers, the range of light most cameras record. 

After some research, thompson found that Infrared film with the correct filtration can reveal light between 750-1000 nanometers, it allows the invisible to be photographed.

After photographing The Village (2011) with 6 rolls of medium format Kodak Aerochrome film Thompson researched what this curious film had originally been used for. 

From Kodak advertisements he devised a wider project using some of the last 36 dead-stock rolls of Kodak Aerochrome in existence – pushing its boundaries to reveal the unseen. 

With such a limit on the number of frames (only 360 exposures) available the work was planned and researched in a way unprecedented in Thompson's previous documentary practice.

Some of the project directly makes use of the films abilities, The Red Forest (2012); uses infrared film to document the condition of the most radioactive forest in the world and in turn re-imagines the Ukraine in deep Soviet burgundy, something that has become eerily prophetic since 2012. 

Infrared film was only commercialised in the 1930s, when manufacturers such as Kodak and Ilford developed

The Village. Pluckley, Kent. U.K. 2012. The village of Pluckley is nearly a thousand years old; the first written record of it is in the Domesday Book (1086).

The Guinness Book of World Records (1989) named Pluckley the most haunted village in England and according to legend there are a number of ghosts that haunt the village and surrounding area.

On a larger scale. It has had many uses, with botanists exploring the cellular material in plants, astronomers studying stars, and musicians such as Jimi Hendrix using infrared photographs for album covers in the 1960s. 

Infrared radiation photography has also been used by the likes of medical photographer.

Thompson shoots with Kodak's Aerochrome III film, which ​stopped being made in 2009, he told Vice, and he set out with 30 rolls. 

'There are only ten shots on a roll. So I could only take 60 pictures when I went to Chernobyl, and 60 pictures when I went to India,' he said. 

'I'm viewing the world through the infrared spectrum of light. I'm shooting blind, so I have to just go for it. That's extremely difficult when you've got so few shots to take.' 

There is an exhibition of the work on in London until the 18th April at Four Corners Gallery, 121 Roman Road, Bethnel Green, London.

There are limited edition prints from the series on sale from the gallery starting from £50

http://www.edwardthompson.co.uk 

Twitter: @_edthompson

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