Gizara: Beyond the Spectrum

Gizara: Beyond the Spectrum

Human vision allows for the perception of only a minute portion of the electromagnetic spectrum—we see this as visible light in a range of color, from violet on one end of the visible spectrum to red on the other. What cannot be detected without mechanical assistance are the gamma rays, X rays, UV rays, microwaves, and radio waves that account for the vast majority of the spectrum. Just beyond the wavelengths that produce our perception of the color red lies the infrared range. While we sense infrared light as heat, it can also be perceived visually given the proper tools.

Los Angeles-based artist and photographer Lisa Gizara uses black and white infrared film and modified digital cameras to make photographs that reveal light from the infrared spectrum. As a painter who discovered infrared technology in the mid-1990s, Gizara was immediately drawn to its ability to render the world in an expressive, dream-like manner. She now uses these tools to produce landscape photographs that transform the ordinary into something strange and arresting, revealing a mysterious world hidden only by our inability to perceive it. With cameras sensitive to infrared light, inorganic material appears relatively unchanged, but organic material—particularly foliage containing chlorophyll—radiates as white and brilliant in the infrared spectrum. In her ongoing series of landscapes, Gizara’s techniques and tools exceed the limits of the human eye, producing images that offer a glimpse into a world beyond vision.

Originally from Troy, New York, Gizara studied painting at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth before relocating to California in the mid-1980s where she has worked as a freelance photographer and painter. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally, and is held in the permanent collections of the Westford Museum and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in Massachusetts. Gizara has received features in numerous publications including People magazine, LA Weekly, LA Times magazine, and The Huffington Post. Her work has also been embraced by the entertainment industry and appeared on the sets of television shows including Mad Men, Castle, CSI Los Angeles, and Modern Family.

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