The Faces of Ultraviolet (Slate)

I spend a lot of time thinking about how narrowly we see the Universe. Our eyes perceive the narrowest slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, the huge range of flavor lights comes in. Radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays—they make visible light, from blue to red, seem hopelessly parochial.

You don’t need to go far outside what the eye can detect to learn a lot about the world around you. Photographer Thomas Leveritt knew this and decided to find out for himself what he could see.

Using a special filter and camera setup, he went outside in Brooklyn, New York, and took video of people in ultraviolet, using a monitor so they could see themselves as well. The results are amazing, and, I must add, delightful:

https://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/08/14/portraits_in_uv_thomas_leveritt_video_of_faces_in_ultraviolet.html