The Portland Photographic Society

Presented by PPS, Thibault Roland will be imparting his knowledge and skill in Infrared Photography. His work can be viewed at http://www.thibaultroland.com .

For most people, photography must show reality. And in most situations this statement is true.

Take a sports competition: the finish line picture will show who won the race. But what happens when the camera is off axis? Winner and loser can be mistaken. What happens when the shutter speed slows down? Racers get blurred out.

By choosing a specific point of view or specific settings, photographers will change the image itself and its message, its meaning.

So why not embrace this approach? Why not encourage the photographer to develop their own intimate and unique perspective? Why not leave reality aside and instead "create" photographs just like painters would use their brush to apply colors on a blank canvas?

Infrared photography is a technique that does just that: it uses a different type of light to transforms reality into something else. Into a dialogue between the artist, the subject and viewer.

Infrared shines a different light onto a subject. It modifies tonalities and contrasts in an image. It turns trees and other vegetation bright, while increasing contrast in the sky.

Infrared is a different approach, one that goes beyond photography and bridges into the Fine Arts.

In this lecture, Sony Artisan of Imagery Thibault Roland will use his own work to present the concept behind infrared photography. He will discuss some of the options to consider even before pressing the shutter trigger, as well as the equipment needed to capture these unique looking images.

Born in France in 1981, Thibault Roland obtained a PhD in Physics in 2009. He started photography while learning the laws of optics at school and eventually applied them to decipher the secrets of biology at Harvard University. He now uses his scientific background and notions such as the Theory of General Relativity as a source for his inspiration and vision.

As a black and white fine art photographer he uses both digital and film cameras and specializes in long exposure architecture, minimalism and seascapes.

Previously an instructor at the New England School of Photography, Thibault teaches workshops and gives seminars internationally and he is backed by Sony through their Artisans of Imagery program.

His fine art photographs have been shown, published and awarded internationally and are included in public and private collections such as the Boston Athenaeum.

Thibault currently lives in Portland, OR.