Heat: Portraits of the Invisible World is a series of portraits taken with a high-resolution thermal camera. I began using this camera in 2016 and was immediately fascinated by its properties, which upend the traditional values of photography. Light is not the defining issue. Instead, what we see is temperature. What we interpret initially as light is actually heat, and dark is cold, or the inverse, since you can set the values how you want. Typically, thermal cameras are used for surveillance, espionage and for the detection of chemicals, radiation, nuclear emissions, explosive materials. You can use them to find heat leaks in your home. What interests me, though, is how this camera illuminates the human figure.

The thermal camera takes away the familiar. It removes the physical characteristics that often divide us socially, such as gender, race and age. Instead, radiating from each portrait are the biological commonalities that unite us—breath, sweat, inflammation and the warm circulation of blood. You are forced to see differently.

The thermal camera enables me to present an alternate vision of what a portrait can be—unfamiliar, void of prejudice and focused on what I like to think of as the essence of an individual.

My curiosity is always about that which can’t be seen—breath, the electrical pulses that run through our bodies, disease, even feelings of love and loss—and how to manifest these interior phenomena into imagery that not only resonates with the viewer but lingers long after with its beauty, complexity and mystery. At a time when we are so divided in this country, in this age of polarity and punishment, with partisan politics and strangled language, my interest is in what connects us, the raw humanity within us. My hope is to inspire people to see that connectivity. This series is a declaration that beyond the boundaries of visibility are elemental truths that bind us as human beings.