Looking Closer

• Prize
  Gold in Fine Art/Abstract
• Jury Top 5 Selection

  Geoff Reed Spectacular and extremely clean, color work. This makes a beautiful array of abstract imagery! Congratulations on your committed project.

• Photographer
  Bevil Templeton-Smith
• Technical Info
  Leitz Orthoplan Polarising Microscope And Sony A7riv Digital Camera
• Photo Date
  2021 - 2024

This set of photographs are part of a project I have been working on for three years. They join my passions for photography, science and experimentation. I bought a series of old Leitz research microscopes (all more than 50 years old). Through a complicated process of connecting my modern digital camera to them, I have photographed an array of beautiful vistas of colour and shape, found in crystals that I made from various chemicals, acids and sweeteners. The microscope is set up with polarising filters and homemade wave plates. The results are an unexpected set of amazingly colourful scenes.

Born in London, but growing up in South Africa as the son of two working artists (painters), Bevil has been familiar with the art world from a very young age. Since moving back to the UK at 20, Bevil has worked as a computer programmer and IT consultant in London for 32 years. For all of this time, he has been an avid photographer. Since the birth of digital photography. He has taken many paid assignments to photograph products, people, events, as well as hobbyist forays into astrophotography, nature, landscapes, macro, extreme macro, and recently, photomicrography (through a microscope)