Invisible World by Nevada Wier

Spectrum Art Gallery Distinguished Guest Artist

Invisible World by Nevada Wier

April 3 – 27, 2025

Mongolia. Gobi Desert Naadam Festival. Women’s Archery 2019 by Nevada Wier

Spectrum Art Gallery’s distinguished guest artist, internationally renowned photographer, Nevada Wier, comes to Fresno with her exhibition ‘Invisible World’.

Nevada Wier, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico is a photographer specializing in documenting the remote corners and cultures of the world. She is recognized for her creative and intimate approach to people, as well as her intriguing Infrared images. She has been published in numerous national and international publications, including: National Geographic Magazine, GEO, NYTimes Magazine, and Shadow & Light. Her fine-art prints are featured in numerous public and private collections. 

Nevada is a well-known keynote speaker, workshop, and seminar instructor. Photo District News named her one of America’s best photography workshop teachers. Nevada’s books include The Land of Nine Dragons – Vietnam Today (Abbeville Press), winner of the Lowell Thomas Best Travel Book of 1992 award, and Adventure Travel Photography (Amphoto). She is currently working on two new books, A Nomadic Vision (publication TBA) and Invisible World: Infrared Photography (publication TBA). 

Nevada has been featured in television productions such as: National Geographic Explorer, National Geographic Through the Lens, and Canon Photo Safaris. She has been a speaker on the nation-wide tour LIVE …from National Geographic. 

She is a Fellow of The Explorer’s Club and a member of the Women’s Geographic Society.

Join us in welcoming distinguished guest artist, Nevada Wier, to our gallery. We have multiple events scheduled for this exhibition including our monthly ArtHop reception. Then the annual Hanna S. Barsam award ceremony where she will give a keynote lecture at Fresno City College. Followed by an artist reception and presentation for our monthly Friday Photography Live at Spectrum Art Gallery. And lastly, a seminar by Nevada Wier: Introduction to Color Infrared Photography at Spectrum Art Gallery.

India. Rajasthan. Puskar Fair. Camel Trader. 2010 by Nevada Wier

Invisible World

Nevada Wier

Our visual familiarity is limited to the colors of visible light. Beyond what our eyes can see is the iridescent world of the infrared (IR) spectrum. In 1997 I began exploring the challenge of making the invisible visible: photographing unusual places using the unusual, haunting light of near infrared. The resulting photographs are truly travel images in a different light. I began my exploration with Kodak Ektachrome IR film, then in 2007 I had a digital camera converted to only render near-infrared light. The results are eerily gorgeous, like hand-tinted photographs but with an almost surreal sharpening of details, as if the subjects were captured in a flash of lightning. It is difficult to predict what colors will emerge in the images; skin tones are more luminous and unblemished, foliage is iridescent, eye color changes, and often details emerge that would not have been visible to the naked eye. The evocative tones lift these images out of the ordinary and beyond the predictability of travel photography, making my subjects feel at once mysterious and familiar. I explore tribal culture and less frequented lands but served up in unseen light. 

What is invisible becomes art – revealed. – Nevada Wier

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

  • ArtHop Reception, Spectrum Art Gallery, Thursday, April 3, 2025, 5-8pm, Free Admission
  • Nevada Wier Keynote Lecture, Hanna S. Barsam Award Ceremony, Thursday, April 24, 2025, 6pm Fresno City College, OAB 251, Free Admission
  • Friday Photography Live: Artist Reception & Presentation, Friday, April 25, 2025, 6pm, Spectrum Art Gallery, Free Admission
  • Artist Seminar Nevada Wier: Introduction to Color Infrared Photography, Saturday, April 26, 2025 9am-1pm, Spectrum Art Gallery, Admission $95 – Space is Limited – Register: square.link/u/7LssavIO

An Infrared Fantasy by Caroline Jackson

An Infrared Fantasy by Caroline Jackson

Exhibit: April 7 – April 29, 2022

Art Hop Reception: April 7, 2022 – 5PM to 8PM

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"Nicole S." -- Caroline Jackson
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"Radar" -- Caroline Jackson

Caroline Jackson bought her first camera 10 years ago, and has seldom set it aside. She never settled on a particular genre, and normally takes a mindfulness approach to creating images. Her photographs are not made with intention – such as documentary work – but on free flowing feeling. Always drawn to the range of human experience, and usually a darker, lonely or edgy mood, her images feature themes of alienation, separation and exclusion and can encompass street scenes, lonely desert landscape, crumbling structures; scenes that convey isolation and being cast aside. Being drawn to the outlier segments of society, her pictures are usually not “pretty.” The goal is always to have the viewer pause, feel, listen and question their relationship to a subject, emotion or idea. Caroline’s primary presentation has always been monochrome – without the distracting element of color – the subject and composition takes center stage. 3 years ago, Caroline decided to convert a digital camera by having its hot filter removed and replaced with a filter that allows some infrared light to reach the sensor – light not within our visible spectrum. This genre of shooting accentuates her usual lonely and edgy scenes. Working with this light the human eye cannot see lends a sense of distortion to her photographs. They appear “different,” and  at times other worldly.The infrared medium gives a new spin on familiar subject matter, a portal to a new or strange vision. Much of Caroline’s work has a shrouded, depressed, or gritty feel. With infrared, there is a different take created on cliche subject matter. Infrared photography has a learning curve, like any genre. An out of the camera RAW file is a jumbled red image, essentially unusable. She shoots with a custom white balance, and utilized a DNG profile in Adobe Camera RAW, to allow the images to be edited. Swaps of color channels are done, to bring out the infrared spectrum of color, and eventually most images are converted to monochrome for a haunting appearance.

Caroline V. Jackson is an attorney from the San Francisco Bay Area, now making her home in Fresno. Infrared takes her photography to the realm of noir. She is affiliated with Spectrum Gallery in Fresno. Her work has been shown at various exhibitions in the Central Valley.

Spectrum Art Gallery’s New Hours of Operation:
ArtHop (1st) Thursdays: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Fridays: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Saturdays and Sundays: 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM