Powder becomes a cloud of violet, and the skier seems to be drawing a bright line through darkness. The archive images from Afterglow make lighting part of the action, rather than simply a way to make the action visible.
The colour is a creative choice
The original feature presented the project in connection with illuminated ski suits and coloured lighting. These are deliberately constructed night scenes. Their purple and blue snow should not be confused with an aurora or taken as a claim about the snow’s natural colour.
Look at the edges of the powder cloud: light picks out airborne snow that would be much less prominent in a flat daytime view. The overhead perspective adds a second layer, turning a ski turn into a graphic shape.
A film reference, not a night-skiing itinerary
The old embedded video is unavailable, so this page preserves the still-image feature without promising a working film player. For another distinctive ski-film moment, see Cody Townsend’s narrow descent. For a different deliberate transformation of landscape colour, explore Daniel Zvereff’s infrared Arctic photographs.
A night scene made for the camera
The original Afterglow feature identified a promotional project associated with Philips television and Atomic skis. The illuminated suits and lighting were part of a deliberately constructed production. Their purpose was to make movement visible in a new way, not to document how an unlit mountain naturally appears after dark.
A turn briefly sends snow into the air, and the lighting gives those particles a coloured outline. Follow that changing outline through the stills: it can reveal the shape of the movement more clearly than the skier’s body alone. The original comparison with Jacob Sutton’s LED work was an editorial resemblance, not evidence of a credited collaboration.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- L.E.D. Surfer
- Vimeo
- This is Colossal
- Magic Flashlights! Are You Ready to Ride?
- Valdez, Alaska - Helicopter Skiing And Snowboarding
- Photos of Alaska: Then And Now. This is A Get Ready to Be Shocked When You See What it Looks Like Now.
- Cody Townsend’s narrow descent
- Daniel Zvereff’s infrared Arctic photographs
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