Visual Artist Dave Tavanti is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Clorofilla’. To see Dave ’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Clorofilla is a photographic project that uses infrared imaging to investigate landscape as a perceptual construction. By capturing a portion of the spectrum invisible to the human eye, the images introduce a gap between direct experience and representation, transforming real places into ambiguous spaces suspended between document and interpretation.

The project stems from an interest in how technology alters our perception of reality and challenges the notion of photography as a neutral record of the world. Infrared is not employed as a mere aesthetic device, but as a critical tool — one that makes visible the very process by which an image selects, transforms, and interprets what we see.

Natural elements retain a recognizable dimension yet are traversed by a tension that shifts how they are read: the landscape ceases to be merely a subject to be depicted and becomes the place where vision itself becomes visible.

While synthetic images and digital simulations continue to multiply the ambiguities of representation, Clorofilla works on something different: revealing that even the most seemingly straightforward photograph already contains a transformation of the visible world.

Dave Tavanti (Perugia, 1974) is an Italian visual artist working with infrared photography.

His practice investigates the relationship between visible reality and perception through alternative photographic processes.

Building on a visual sensibility developed through portraiture, his work is further informed by a background in cinematography and color grading.

The Clorofilla project received 2nd place in the Fine Art / Other category at the IPA – International Photography Awards 2025, a competition of nearly 14,000 entries from 100 countries, and an Honorable Mention at the Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA) 2025.

The work has been published in the print edition of Tutti Fotografi (July/August 2025, pp. 28–33), Italy’s historic photography magazine.

Since its debut in 2024, Clorofilla has had an active exhibition presence through solo shows and participations by invitation and selection.

All images and text © Dave Tavanti