Fountains Abbey Monastery Ruins in Infrared

6. August 2023

Fountains Abbey is the ruins of a Cistercian monastery in North Yorkshire, England. The abbey was founded in 1132 and when Henry VIII raged over England, this monastery was also dissolved in 1539.

The monastery is located in a beautiful park and the best time is certainly in spring or autumn. We were there in May and were incredibly lucky with the weather! The complex is so large that you can spend a whole day there!

I photographed the IR images with a Fuji XT-2 full spectrum and a 720 filter. I have been taking pictures for over 40 years and in the 80's I experimented a lot with Kodak black and white IR film. The Kodak High Speed Infrared HIE 135-36 was of course super sensitive and developing in the IR range had to be practiced.

Digital IR on the other hand is already much easier here! Although I still work up to 8×10 analog comes the digital IR camera just right! I have decided on my 3 cameras for full spectrum because the scope with filters is simply greater. Of course, the final result of IR photography is up to the post-production, but I still want to tinker as little as possible with my IR photographs.

Discover more of Jean-Luc Koenig's photography on his website: http://royalement.eu