The laws of thermodynamics govern everything from the behavior of atoms to that of living cells, from the engines that power our world to the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Thermodynamics explains why we must eat and breathe, how the lights come on, and how the universe will end.
Paul Sen
Working with a thermal camera, I explore the properties of thermodynamics in relation to the lived human experience, the more-than-human, and in relation to the landscape. Through my research I explore concepts of vitality, extremis, and near death as emblematic of the life cycle. In this work, I uncover an invisible realm of sensory information that is remarkably poignant for how we visualise life.
In response to our world, I seek out and reveal deeper connections between the land and living beings, offering a unique representation of the rapidly changing thermal energy within our world. Through my work I show living beings in all stages of life as well as the natural world we inhabit in all its various forms of evolution, renewal—and often—distress. I see a bond between the life stages of the individuals I photograph and the state of the natural world I encounter. All this life shares in a life cycle that is regulated by heat. I believe focusing on heat in these situations gives me an alternative perspective on life. It is my aim to consider and uncover the elemental truths that lie beyond the boundaries of visibility that bind human beings to one another and to the land.
Taking away the familiar, the high-resolution thermal camera removes the physical characteristics that often divide us socially. Pigmentation, tattoos, hair color cease to exist. Marks and wrinkles on the skin often disappear. We see the life-force of animals and the connections we share as living beings. Forms in the landscape take on similar characteristics as the living, stressed, or dying body. The depth of field and the three-dimensional object are flattened as the figure comes to the forefront often isolated in space floating in nothingness, in an absence of gravity. This disorientation is liberating because the images don’t connect to previous assumptions. Instead, radiating from each photograph are the biological commonalities that unite us to each other, to animals, and to the land—permeability, the circulation of fluids, and a physical response to heat.
We are forced to see differently.