Kristi Beisecker “Untitled”

"Bluebells"

"Pine needles"

"Treeflowers"

William Reich, in 1940, discovered a subtle energy in organic materials that is extremely attracted to water. It is said that this subtle energy is the life force energy of organic materials. It has long been thought that this subtle energy can be captured and conveyed through a contact photographic process called Kirlian Photography with the organic materials being exposed to electricity onto traditional photographic paper.

In the Spring of 2012 I took a class in Alternative Photography as part of my degree in Graphic and Interactive Design. I am also into spirituality and as part of this interest I discovered Kirlian Photography or as I like to term it - Electrography. Kirlian Photography is made using high voltage electricity to expose objects on photo sensitive paper. In the realm of spirituality this photo process is said to capture the life force energy of organic materials, thus using it as a scientific process. Those who use the process look at it in a scientific mind frame and just photograph one object. Seeing its' potential as an art form, I took the process and reinvigorated it to be compatible with traditional darkroom processing. As this process was originally developed to use Polaroid film - which is expensive now - my college only had darkroom processing so I used the materials that were available to me. In the creation process, I applied my design skills of composition, relationships to elements on the page and how to arrange objects on a page where the energy flowed through the design. To me these photographs aren't just photograms but a cultivation of my entire knowledge as an artist.