[dprice1]

According to https://www.newscientist.com/article/2328132-james-webb-spac..., "This first image is a region of space called SMACS 0723, which contains what astronomers call a gravitational lens. In areas like this, a massive object relatively close to Earth behaves like a magnifying glass, distorting space and stretching the light of anything behind it." and "The gravitational lens in SMACS 0723 is particularly strong because the nearby object distorting space-time is not one galaxy, but a large cluster of galaxies."

[abc_lisper]

So where are those galaxies? Are they not visible in infrared? Or has light bent so much that those galaxies are not visible?

[smolder]

From the analysis I've seen, I understand the white-appearing objects at the center of the image are the galaxies that compose that galaxy cluster. The very red and deformed galaxies around them are much further away but made visible due to the gravitational lensing.