Automotive Diptych – Bushwick Classic Car Graffiti & Salton Sea Floating Tire | Surreal Aerochrome Infrared | Ryan Struck World & Color Series
Titled "automotive," this powerful diptych Aerochrome infrared photograph from Ryan Struck's "World & Color" series juxtaposes two scenes of abandonment and decay on rare, discontinued Kodak Aerochrome reversal film. Left: a classic car fenced amid graffiti in Bushwick, Brooklyn, evoking urban grit and street art resilience. Right: a lone tire floating in the desolate, toxic expanse of California's Salton Sea. The film's false-color transformation renders any vegetation or elements in electric magenta, hot pink, and crimson bursts—revealing near-infrared light (700–900 nm) invisible to human vision—while cars, tires, water, graffiti, and skies shift into cyan-purple ethereal tones, creating a psychedelic, dreamlike commentary on human impact across urban and environmental realms. The medium-format split composition invites viewers to confront parallel narratives of neglect and hidden beauty. Part of the series exploring global sites with scarce military-origin stock, this image resonates with neuroaesthetics on anomalous color's role in aestheticizing decay, emotional response to juxtaposition, and creative critique; visual neuroscience explorations of false-color conceptual processing and altered consciousness; consciousness/psychedelic thinkers seeing metaphors for expanded awareness of modern disconnection; and creative directors/art directors seeking bold, conceptual diptych/editorial/street/environmental photography for high-end cultural, sustainability, urban lifestyle, ironic brand, or experimental campaigns. A rare, museum-caliber work bridging documentary observation, perception science, and surreal revelation.