“I like to think that through this technique it’s possible to capture the soul and energy of flowers,” Ms. Lombardi told The Epoch Times, “making visible to the naked eye what is generally not.”
Behind the closed door of Ms. Lombardi’s studio at night, the silence and darkness help facilitate interaction between the photographer and the flowers. UV light enhances the colors and textures to such a degree, her subjects glow with iridescence, giving the viewer intimate insight.
“It makes every slightest imperfection of the flower clearly visible, which becomes absolute perfection,” Ms. Lombardi said.
Born in the Puglia region of southern Italy but choosing to settle in Piedmont, in the north, the 50-year-old specializes in the field of visual communication design. At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, working from home, she came across the blog of a biologist and was instantly fascinated by the phenomenon of fluorescence in flowers and plants hit by ultraviolet light.
“During the lockdown, I spent the days sitting in front of the PC following my projects, and in the evening I felt the need to relax and dedicate myself to something else,” she said.
For her own interest and amusement, Ms. Lombardi started assembling the equipment necessary to experiment. Shopping online, she armed herself with a UV torch, filters, and a good tripod. Restricted from leaving her home, she would head down to the communal garden where she lived to collect flowers and began her foray into ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence (UVIVF) photography.
While Ms. Lombardi says she was “so enthusiastic about the results” that she continued to shoot almost every day,” she would never have anticipated the success that was to come. After her very first playful project, which showed the flowers in a “mysterious, monstrous” light, she went on to explore further.
Her “Alstromeria (Peruvian lily) UVIVF” photo, which has become a universally recognized symbol of her art, was shortlisted in the “Between Art and Science” series at the 2022 Sony World Photography Awards and was also used by Sony to globally publicize the event.
Discovering the Peruvian lily by chance, Ms. Lombardi says “it was love at first sight.“ ”I had never photographed this flower before, but its ethereal elegance struck me immediately, and once subjected to UV light it literally bewitched and fascinated me by the amount of energy it was able to emit,” she said.
Ms. Lombardi recalls first showing her efforts to friends, who were also captivated by the results and gave her flowers of their own to photograph.
“People were immediately fascinated by my work and the way I can capture the ’soul and energy' of flowers through my photography,” she said.
What has motivated her to experiment and do better, she says, is the interest she’s received not only from the artistic world, but from a scientific community intrigued by her method. The results don’t come easily, however. It is a technique that requires time, commitment, preparation, and very careful observation of the subject.
Taking her photos in a totally dark environment, Ms. Lombardi utilizes a plain black background to emphasize the striking coloration of the flower; a simple composition reminiscent of portrait photography.
“Each shot is different from the other,” she said, “because, pointing at the flower with the UV flashlight, movements are never the same, and the effects of light and shadows are different from shot to shot.”
Post-processing is far more straightforward, consisting only of using software to develop the RAW shooting file. “Generally, no post-processing is necessary. The color is the original shot, as well as the light and composition,” she said.
Interestingly, while the technique unveils chromatic scenes invisible to our senses but nonetheless existing, some creatures—such as bees—are naturally able to perceive the vivid, incandescent colors. Ms. Lombardi loves being able to give people a similar experience; surprising and delighting observers of her work.
“I like to give those who look at my flowers the feeling of actually being able to touch and smell them, as if they were really ‘alive’ to the point of being able to pick them,” she said, adding that she’s very “attached” to all the photos she takes, the outcome of a long artistic process that begins with the search for the most suitable and original flower.
Ms. Lombardi has been told many times that her photography is capable of evoking feelings and that people get emotional viewing her images. “For me, this is the best thing,” she said. “Apparently, my photos have therapeutic power: they help with meditation and relaxation.”
Entering her shots into the 2022 international Sony competition was a spontaneous, last-minute thing. Just making the entry deadline, Ms. Lombardi had no expectations about winning but was eager to make her work better known.
It was a “great and unexpected joy” to discover she’d made the shortlist for the “Between Art and Science” series. But that wasn’t all—after a few weeks she got the news that her photos had been selected among the finalists of the “Wildlife & Nature” category and would be exhibited in London’s Somerset House gallery.
“To be selected from over 344,000 entries, from 200 countries and territories is an experience I still cannot believe!” she said. “Since that day many things have changed in my life and in my work.”
Though today it’s her major passion, photography has always been a part of Ms. Lombardi’s life. As a child, she would steal away her father’s prized Polaroid camera, and it seems her wayward curiosity paid off, later down the line. “I wasted the films taking unlikely snapshots that today would be defined as ‘experimental,’” she said.
