NEUTRINOS
The fate of the Universe is governed by invisible particles.
The fate of our societies is governed by invisible communities.
In an increasingly interconnected world, one would expect communication and dialogue to flourish. Yet, recent political events have revealed a growing tide of polarisation, that continues to deepen. I was trying to make sense of this discrepancy, when I visited the Fermilab outside Chicago in 2017. It was during that visit that I heard about neutrinos for the first time. Neutrinos are the most abundant and primordial particles in the Universe. They penetrate through matter without interacting with it. They are almost weightless, yet they tip the scales between matter and anti-matter towards the material existence of our world. In simple words, neutrinos defined the fate of the Universe.
The analogy was inspiring. Similar to the way the invisible presence of neutrinos governs the fate of the universe, the result of the recent US election illuminates the fate of American society governed by previously invisible, (often rural) communities.
Very often, these communities have been approached with political prejudice, photographed in the light of political beliefs, that only propagated polarisation and division.
From 2018 till now, I have been visiting and spending time in small communities in the US Midwest photographing how life unfolds, by using as an axis the line between two scientific facilities in Illinois and South Dakota that study neutrinos. I wanted to approach these people outside a political scope that amplifies polarisation and social division. I wanted to find out what do we have in common that we can use as ground for bridging the political gap. The photographs are an intimate documentation of my interaction with these communities, the space they inhabit, and the way it brought about change, regardless of our political views.
"Neutrinos” wants to raise awareness of our social fabric and its diversity hidden in more remote areas of society, in order to build bridges between people who don’t communicate with each other and be a catalyst that commences social dialogue through the photographic lens. The work explores this significant moment in history, blending science and documentary to draw analogies between the macrocosmos of society and the microcosmos of particle physics.
© VASSILIS TRIANTIS
Neutrinos are created in many processes and everywhere in nature; in the sun and the explosions of stars, or particle decays on Earth. Even a banana emits neutrinos.
About a trillion solar neutrinos pass through our bodies every second and we don’t realise it. They are almost invisible!
Neutrinos may be their own antiparticles which would mean as well that neutrinos are the only particles that can co-exist with their opposites without annihilating each other.
Neutrinos have been compared to "ghosts slipping through the night," because they're so insubstantial and seem to barely interact with the rest of the physical world.
