Archival museum-quality images printed on Japanese washi paper
These images were made with a simple USB microscope my marine biology daughter, knowing my love of image-making and nature, gave to me for a birthday present. I’m an artist, but a love of science and the natural world is something that she and I share. The entire Microscope series you can see in my portfolio comes from that same childlike interest to see the natural world as when you were a kid and would pick up a rock, curious to see what creepy things were under it. Nature magnified can be astonishingly beautiful, and also at times shocking.
The images of geraniums I found highly erotic, and I would not suggest magnifying decaying parsley from the garden if you have a weak stomach; you will be visually bombarded by living creepy-crawly microscopic creatures scurrying around that live on the plants. The sprouted garlic cloves I found in our kitchen sitting among the onions. The geranium blooms, both fresh and dried, were in pots on the porch outside my studio. The microscope makes low-res images—72 dpi. Image control is minimal; there is a ring of LCD lights up inside the microscope with a dimmer, and you can zoom, from 400x to 1000x, which obviously affects the composition. I determine the background color on which the object rests—dark to absorb light or light to reflect it—and I play with the light as I would in a studio—albeit a very, very tiny studio where I’m a giant—blocking or diffusing ambient light coming in through a window, sometimes bouncing light into the scene with a small strip of cardboard, but it’s all very small and Stuart Little-ish. I print the images about 3 x 4 inches on Japanese washi paper that further softens the image. To me, they are as much painterly as they are photographic.
- Approximately 3 x 4" (slightly larger) archival microscopic images of garlic, geranium petals, and oregano printed by Digital Silver Imaging, a fine arts printer of museum-quality work, in Belmont, Massachusetts on archival imported Japanese washi from Hiromi Paper Company in Culver City, California.
- Each of your prints will arrive in an acid-free beveled mat backed by an 1/8" thick acid-free foamcore backing board enclosed in a clear, heavy-duty, archival, acid-free acetate bag.
- Choose the images you wish. Mix and match, or make a set for that special spot you're thinking of in your home or workspace. Free shipping on orders of three or more.
