Photonics

The Photonics are classified as a body of work within Abstract Photography. These works are based on the idea of painting with individual particles of light. The name of the series refers to these particles—photons—which, with their specific wavelengths, strike our eyes and generate an immense spectrum of color impressions within the nanometer range. The wavelengths of visible light, depending on the observer, range from about 380 to 780 nanometers.

The Photonics depict millimeter-sized excerpts from photographically captured Chromotopes — Victoria Coeln’s light interventions at significant locations. These details are enlarged to such an extent that, when viewed up close, the light colors appear as individual pixels — exactly as they reach our eyes as wavelengths of different colors. From this abstract mixture of color, we construct— moment by moment — the visible world we recognize, even without consciously retracing each step of perception, without knowing exactly how it works.

In Victoria Coeln’s Photonics, not only the beauty, diversity, and interplay of light colors become visible, but also the wonder of our own vision.
We are seeing into seeing.
 

Heike Sütter