Plant science / fluorescence / photography

Biology in a different light.

My BioArt work uses plant material, viral infection, Green Fluorescent Protein and ultraviolet photography to make usually invisible biological processes part of the image.

Selected works 2024–2025 Uppsala, Sweden

Four-part photographic composition of leaves arranged in flower shapes under visible and ultraviolet light — A Potyviral FlowerVisible light + UV fluorescenceLicense: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Selected works

The same leaves can hold several images. Visible light shows plant form and disease symptoms; ultraviolet light reveals fluorescence, infection patterns and marks designed to stay hidden until the illumination changes.

Viral Riders
Potyviral Flower
Hidden Gaze / Revealing

01 / 2024

Viral Riders of the Plant Immune Storm

Photographic composition · visible light and UV fluorescence
Aimer G. Diaz, Joan Marquez-Molins & Anders Hafren

Challenging the idea that viruses must remain invisible, this work reveals their presence through fluorescent patterns. Nicotiana benthamiana leaves move from uninfected to weakly and severely infected, turning disease progression into a visual gradient.

The method

Five Turnip mosaic virus constructs express Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). Under ultraviolet illumination, their different infection patterns become visible across the leaves.

Four-panel spiral arrangement of plant leaves showing a gradient of virus infection under visible and ultraviolet light — Composite viewVisible / UV / image transformationsLicense: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

02 / 2024

A Potyviral Flower

Photographic composition · visible light and UV fluorescence
Aimer G. Diaz, Joan Marquez-Molins & Anders Hafren

Leaves infected with five Turnip mosaic virus constructs form a circular motif. Ultraviolet light shifts their colors and reveals fluorescent viral patterns, while UV-absorbing sunscreen encodes drawings and messages that are muted in daylight.

The question

What happens when a laboratory reporter stops being only a measurement and becomes a pigment?

Four views of a flower-like arrangement of infected leaves in visible and ultraviolet light — Four states of the same motifPhotographic compositionLicense: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Animated transition of an infected leaf between visible and ultraviolet illumination — Turn the lightsVisible light / UV fluorescenceLicense: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

03 / 2025

The Hidden Gaze / Revealing the Hidden Gaze

Framed dried leaves · GFP fluorescence · long-exposure UV photograph
Aimer G. Diaz

Leaves of the Nicotiana benthamiana 16c line express GFP under the Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. A tool commonly used to illuminate molecular processes becomes an artistic material, revealing a subtle gaze that remains concealed in daylight.

A long-exposure ultraviolet photograph isolates the second life of the leaf collage. Areas coated with broad-spectrum SPF 50 sunscreen block GFP fluorescence and chlorophyll's red autofluorescence, allowing the drawn pattern to appear through contrast.

The material

GFP is one of biology's most widely used fluorescent markers. Here, its light is used to disclose an image rather than quantify an experiment.

Collage of green Nicotiana benthamiana leaves under visible light — DaylightThe image recedesLicense: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The leaf collage glowing blue, green and orange under ultraviolet light, with faces and eyes emerging — UltravioletThe gaze appearsLicense: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Animated transition revealing faces and eyes within a collage of fluorescent leaves — The Hidden GazeAnimated light studyLicense: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Where research becomes material.

I am a biologist and bioinformatician studying plant-virus interactions. These works grow from the same systems I use in research, but they ask a different kind of question: how can infection, fluorescence and molecular tools change what we perceive in a plant?

The images connect scientific observation with composition, color and revelation. They invite the viewer to move between scales—from a molecular reporter to a whole leaf, and from experimental evidence to visual experience.