Influorescence by Kate Ballis and Tom Blachford
Artist Statement
Taking its name from the portmanteau of inflorescence and fluorescent the series represents the first collaborative fine art release from creative and life partners Kate Ballis and Tom Blachford. The series captures flowers grown by the couple in their garden in Ivanhoe East, a leafy suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Each bloom was grown from bulb or seed and selected amongst its peers to be the most evocative specimen.
The results and process by which the images are captured has captivated both artists and allowed them to explore their shared love of using photography to make the unseen, seen.
Each bloom, cut on just the right day is brought into their pitch black home studio and subjected to a large amount of ultraviolet light, specifically 365nm, invisible to both the human eye and the camera used to capture these images. The flowers absorb this powerful energy, in turn changing its frequency and re-emitting it within the visible spectrum as a faint ethereal glow of colour, almost imperceivable to the human eye. The camera, fixed on the flower uses long exposures to drink in this ghostly warmth.
Each image requires up to 100 of these exposures in order to capture the full depth and detail of each bloom, which are then stitched together to create the final image.
The results are reminiscent of galaxies far away, twinkling with stars of dust and exploding with pollen supernovas. The artworks are named after stars and galaxies rather than the botanical name of the flowers.
