Photo exhibition "The Invisible Side of Light"

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Description

The exhibition "The Invisible Side of Light" introduces Hannes Sirkel’s photographic work, where art and natural science meet. The works reveal how different natural objects appear in different parts of the light spectrum, and how structures, pigments, and surfaces that normally remain beyond the range of our perception can be brought to light.

The Invisible Side of Light
Hannes Sirkel (1984–2026)

Photo exhibition "The Invisible Side of Light" presents the photographs and research-based work of the recently deceased Hannes Sirkel. His creative work brings together art and natural science. The exhibition features a series of pieces in which different plant parts, fungi and other natural objects have been photographed in different regions of the light spectrum - in visible, ultraviolet and infrared light.

These images do not simply show us what we can see, but also make perceptible that which is usually invisible to the naked eye. Hannes was interested in what different kinds of light reveal. Which structures, pigments and surfaces respond to light, and how? How does the representation of nature change when viewed beyond the spectrum normally accessible to the human eye?

Hannes combined artistic thinking with scientific inquiry in his work. He studied art in the art programme at Tartu Art Gymnasium and biology at the University of Tartu, and earned a master’s degree in molecular biochemistry and ecology from Tallinn University.

For Hannes, light was both an object of research and a tool. He was fascinated by bioluminescence, chlorophyll fluorescence, the polarisation of light, and the ways in which different organisms perceive the world. His work is guided by the idea that the world visible to humans is only a small part of what actually exists.

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