3rd place
bronze star award
Bevil Templeton-Smith
united kingdom 
title
Looking Closer
These crystals are placed in polarising light on my 1970 Leitz Orthoplan polarising microscope, and photographed with my modern Sony digital camera.
The process of finding these gems hidden on microscope slides fulfils a passion I have for science, experimentation and fiddling with things, joining it to my other passion of artistic photography. Even the method to connect my camera to my microscope is a home built contraption whose parts were excised from other devices and precariously glued together to make an unconventional camera "eyepiece".
Viewers are often excused for referring to my images as paintings. However paintings they are not. These are real photographs of real subjects. Photographed with a very specific configuration of polarised light and retardation with a wave plate (again, homemade wave plates pulled from unexpecting sources).
I have also been an amateur photographer for almost all of this time and have photographed subjects from astro to macro, products to events, portraits to landscapes. Many paid jobs, but usually for fun.
However pleasing my photographs of wildlife, city life, seascapes, astronomy targets and macro spiders might be, I feel the photography world has a huge wealth of this kind of photography. Rising above the many other enormously talented photographers doing similar work is extremely difficult or requires great luck. I was very keen to find myself a unique corner of the photography world, and I believe that after all this time taking thousands and thousands of other photographs, I might have found my niche.
During the coronavirus lockdowns, I started buying vintage German research microscopes. In particular - Leitz Orthoplan microscopes - of which I now have four.
With my microscopes, I began a project of photographing crystals of various household materials and chemicals that I concocted on various melting and evaporating plates, in order to photograph in polarised light. With these, I have worked and reworked scenes, colours and compositions until I have found and managed to photograph magical landscapes of colour, texture and pattern. These images are not contrived or created in software. They are real, and are often revisited and reimagined with slight modification to the polarising equipment and wave plates to find the perfect composition.
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entry description
Looking Closer is part of my ongoing quest to find beautiful images in microscopic crystals of various common chemicals, sweeteners, sugars and whatever else I can find to melt, dissolve, burn, and in some cases crystallise.These crystals are placed in polarising light on my 1970 Leitz Orthoplan polarising microscope, and photographed with my modern Sony digital camera.
The process of finding these gems hidden on microscope slides fulfils a passion I have for science, experimentation and fiddling with things, joining it to my other passion of artistic photography. Even the method to connect my camera to my microscope is a home built contraption whose parts were excised from other devices and precariously glued together to make an unconventional camera "eyepiece".
Viewers are often excused for referring to my images as paintings. However paintings they are not. These are real photographs of real subjects. Photographed with a very specific configuration of polarised light and retardation with a wave plate (again, homemade wave plates pulled from unexpecting sources).
about the photographer
I am an IT consultant and programmer, having worked in this field in London for nearly thirty years. I have worked with countless clients in the arts and creative fields. I am also the son of two successful lifelong artists, so creative expression in visual form has always been a part of me.I have also been an amateur photographer for almost all of this time and have photographed subjects from astro to macro, products to events, portraits to landscapes. Many paid jobs, but usually for fun.
However pleasing my photographs of wildlife, city life, seascapes, astronomy targets and macro spiders might be, I feel the photography world has a huge wealth of this kind of photography. Rising above the many other enormously talented photographers doing similar work is extremely difficult or requires great luck. I was very keen to find myself a unique corner of the photography world, and I believe that after all this time taking thousands and thousands of other photographs, I might have found my niche.
During the coronavirus lockdowns, I started buying vintage German research microscopes. In particular - Leitz Orthoplan microscopes - of which I now have four.
With my microscopes, I began a project of photographing crystals of various household materials and chemicals that I concocted on various melting and evaporating plates, in order to photograph in polarised light. With these, I have worked and reworked scenes, colours and compositions until I have found and managed to photograph magical landscapes of colour, texture and pattern. These images are not contrived or created in software. They are real, and are often revisited and reimagined with slight modification to the polarising equipment and wave plates to find the perfect composition.
back to gallery
