Sirens – or the magic of infrared nude photography

I used to shoot a lot with Kodak HIE Infrared film primarily focusing on infrared nude photography and infrared landscape photography (ideally combining the two). My cousin and photographer Byron Brauchli introduced me to developing with D-23 in Austin Texas which was very well suited for infrared film as the two step process ensured amazing tonality and highlights were very rarely blown out. The first exhibition I took part in at the Pro-Jex Gallery in Austin, Texas featured three of my infrared nude prints.

Nowadays, you can take infrared photos with a converted DSLR, but the magic seemed much stronger with Kodak’s HIE film, which is not made anymore. Infrared photography is not always suited for nudes as it can really reveal and enhance veins below the skin. Infrared nudes have something surreal when you get a shot that works though. The following two examples are early infrared nude photos I took with my Pentax ME Super and Kodak HIE shot at 400 ISO. I really like them as they resemble charcoal drawings of the model. They were taken in Bull creek in Austin and at one point we almost caused a collision when a pick up driver on highway 360 spotted the nude model in the creek and came to a screeching halt…

I have been wanting to shoot similar images in Switzerland but its near impossible as water temperatures are freezing even in summer.

Neraid’s Repose

Sleeping Siren

The image below is more recent and was taken with a DSLR (converted for infrared photography) in the beautiful olive groves of Corfu, Greece.