Turning on the high voltage, he saw the "aura of life."

in 1939, Soviet electrician Semiao Krian (Semyon Kirlian) discovered a wonderful phenomenon in the equipment he maintained.

it is a medical device for "high-frequency electrotherapy", which produces a low current, high frequency, and high voltage. Krian found that there were many small flashes between the electrodes when they were close to the patient's skin.

Krian doesn't know what he's seeing, but he seems to be fascinated by it. So he began to build his equipment and began a 30-year study of these "halos" with his wife.

in this way, the beautiful art of photography was born with a bad pseudoscience theory.

(Thomas.Wedekind/Wikipedia)

see the "aura"?

to record these flashes, Killian built a similar device and added photosensitive negatives to turn it into a photographic technique-a special technique often referred to as "Krian photography" (Kirlian photography).

(photographer Mark D Roberts's Krian photography | Wikipedia)

initially, Krian covered a glass plate coated with a photosensitive layer on a metal plate electrode, put on the desired object, and then briefly turned on the high-frequency and high-voltage power supply. In this way, the photosensitive film leaves a "halo" around the object. Since then, he has tried to use color film for photosensitivity, leaving a strange color effect on the film.

(a version of Krian's photographic device illustration | Wikipedia)

Brian's favorite subjects are fingers and leaves. In Krian's photography, the halo pattern left by the leaves is particularly fascinating: a wealth of details are shown in the flash around the outline of the leaf and at the vein. Freshly picked leaves leave a rich "halo" on the film, and a few days after picking, the "halo" becomes dim.

(Krian photography of fresh leaves (left), and photographic effect of the same leaf two days later (right) | Allan A. Mills.)

more interestingly, the leaves also seem to have a "phantom" effect in these shots: if you take a complete leaf first, then cut off part of it and then sense the light again. At this time, it seems that there is still a faint "halo" that can show the complete outline of the leaves.

Unfortunately, in trying to explain these phenomena, Killian went in the wrong direction. He calls his recorded "halo" Aura" and believes that he sees some kind of "energy field" emitted by life with the help of high voltage. The gradual dimming of the halo of the leaves is attributed by him to the loss of "vitality", while the "phantom" is interpreted as the embodiment of the integrity of the "life aura". As for the "halo" around people's fingers, it is regarded by him as a window for analyzing emotional state and diagnosing diseases.

(using Krian's fingers, this kind of image is often associated with the "aura" (Aura) | Wikipedia)

everything is just an ordinary physical phenomenon

what Killian sees and records is an ordinary physical phenomenon-- it's called Corona Discharge (corona discharge). Under the action of a local electric field, air molecules are ionized and excited, which in turn produces a Discharge glow, that's all. Before Krian's "discovery", this phenomenon was already familiar to the scientific community.

the luminescence produced in the air is blue-purple, which is determined by the properties of the air molecules. When Discharge acts directly on color film, it also produces other colors different from those observed by the naked eye.

(Killian photography produces strange color effects when shooting with color film | MrX/Wikipedia)

but as for those wonderful "halo" changes around fingertips and leaves, it has nothing to do with "vitality"-one of the key influencing factors is water. The morphological characteristics and density of "halo" photographed by human fingers do not depend on emotional state or health but are mainly related to the degree of moisture on the surface of the skin. The "halo" of the same leaf changes with time it is due to the gradual loss of water inside the leaf, changing the electrical conductivity of the tissue. The "phantom" of the leaves that still flash after cutting off comes from squeezing the leaves during the operation, leaving traces on the surface.

(Krian photography of coins-or corona Discharge images. Of course, this has nothing to do with "aura" or "vitality" | Chemikus69/Wikipedia)

the "aura" theory of Killian photography was popular in the 1970s and has declined since then. These sparkling images do not reveal the mysteries of life, nor do they bring any practical application, but their unique beauty still attracts photography enthusiasts.

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you can also find many DIY tutorials on Krian photography (mostly using Tesla coil as a high voltage power supply), but if you don't know how to operate high voltage safely, it's best not to try.