Honorable Mention
Scorpio
DESCRIPTION
I hope to have created a surrealist interpretation of a personification of Scorpio. The viewer can see what they will, but perhaps there is a face of an angry entity with a segmented scorpion tail. I often use the detritus on the slide to create a star field and this works well with this image. I am always interested in exploring the Marguerite inspired idea of “this is not….” as this is in reality this is a still life of crystals of picric acid, acid fuchsin and alanine (an amino acid) created through the laborious and skilful process of stacking and stitching around 2000 images (part algorithmic, part slow and mechanical). The lens system's magnification is x200 and the images are shot using polarised light.
It is not abstract art, it is not surreal art, but it is both these things.
I continue my aesthetic work in the study of translucency, colour and glass-like textures all of which interest me.
AUTHOR
I'm a Cambridge based secondary (high school) teacher and photographer.I explore texture, colour, perspective, light, shade and translucency using mineral, vegetable and animal matter prepared with skill for the microscope and camera.
Most of my pieces first involve preparation of a slide, which can take can take several days of technical work involving staining and lab equipment. Microscopes have a very limited focus depth and small field of view. I create compositions by taking hundreds or thousands of photographs together with focus stacking and stitching, both algorithmic and manual.
I use a variety of lighting techniques, quite often utilising polarised light.
There are wonderful visions of abstract beauty hidden from view and my goal is to compose these and bring them to colourful light.
