Seductive infrared photography that turns Southern California into a surreal world

Shot with a specially converted full-spectrum mirrorless camera using various infrared filters, the Melbourne-based photographer reimagines iconic Palm Springs locations, such as the Ace Hotel & Swim Club, the Palm Springs Tennis Club and the Parker Hotel, as a surreal world in which succulents and palm trees are depicted in vibrant hues of blue, skies are a rich magenta, and swimming pools blood red. The contrasting, high-spirited colours illuminate the textures of the lush foliage that once blended into the desert landscape.

The hyper-saturated images subvert the desert city's previously muted landscape into mysteriously alluring, joyously alive technicolour fantasias, creating an unsettling ambiguity, an otherworldliness in which we question reality and the world around us. Making the unseen, seen, Ballis's infrared photographs offer a glimpse into the unknown, an uninhabited distant planet or parallel universe, at once strange and familiar.

Hypercolour Fantasy: Infra Realism at Garis & Hahn in Los Angeles marks Kate Ballis's US debut and her first solo show with the gallery. It will run from 22 July until 25 August 2018.