This story is part of a feature that first appeared in print in Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine’s January 2023 issue. Read the entire e-edition here:
Revelstoke photographer Daniel Stewart’s series of 20 infrared adventure sports and landscape acrylic images, InfraRAD, will be featured in the main hall at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre’s January show.
Revelstoke-based Stewart works as a photographer for Selkirk Tangiers, works closely with professional athletes like skier Sammy Carlson and snowboarder Dustin Craven, and is often featured in mountain adventure publications. In 2020, he took an interest in infrared photography, but the images he saw didn’t reflect the outdoor action sports genre he works in, so he took a deep dive into the genre to explore how he could use infrared to capture his world.
Forms of infrared photography have been around for over a century, and the genre has come in and out of vogue. Infrared was often used to solve technical issues, such as for aerial photography that could penetrate cloud cover, or for military applications such as camouflage detection.
Artistically, its look has been in and out of vogue, such as during the psychedelic era in the ’60s and graced album covers from recording artists like Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead.
One reason it’s not as prevalent in contemporary digital photography is modern digital camera sensors filter out the infrared spectrum, so expensive conversions or conversion kits are needed to make it work.
Stewart worked with New York-based Kolari Vision, a photography technology company focusing on infrared photography. They convert cameras and offer drop-in filters that help the digital sensors translate the input into an infrared spectrum.
Even if you have the conversion kit, one reason they’re not prevalent in action sports, Stewart learned, is the technical challenges of shooting action, including the need for complex manual focusing.
For Stewart, creating the exhibit has been a challenge and a journey. He has worked full-time as a commercial and action photographer since 2016, facing the challenges of making a living in a craft where paycheques aren’t consistent. “Photography is my livelihood now. I have been very much focused on surviving,” he said.
Allowing himself a sojourn into infrared allowed him to refocus on photography as a creative outlet. “It has been very scary,” he said.
But with encouragement from those close to him and encouraging results from his experiments, he pressed on, shooting kayaking, skiing, snowboarding, biking and landscapes. The results have been personally rewarding and gained recognition. Two infrared (and one regular) images were selected for inclusion in the Red Bull Illume contest and resulting photo book, one of the most prestigious selections in the adventure sports photography world.
His infrared exploration was an artistic departure that allowed him to reclaim the creative space. “It was almost like learning about taking photography all over again but getting super creative,” he said. “It seems like everywhere I brought it forward it’s turned into something bigger than I thought it’d be. Infrared photography has allowed me to take photography back in the way that it’s a creative outlet.”
The exhibit features 20 images printed on acrylic to help make the focus and images pop. Stewart has partnered with Armada Skis and Nitro Snowboards to create a pair of skis and a board with photos from the series to be featured in the exhibit.
The exhibit at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre features an exhibit opening on the evening of Jan. 5, and the show runs until Jan. 29. The exhibit features works by Jamie Kroeger in Gallery One, Sabrina Curtis in Gallery Two and works by Susie Kathol and Jenny Liski in Gallery Three.
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