Why do I make images with a microscope lens attached to my phone?
In a world trained to see avalanches of images daily, I was aware that those avalanches invited me to treat what I was looking at very superficially. I wanted to look more closely at what was around me, particularly at things in nature: looking at the micro rather than the macro.
Does looking at the micro encourage me to fill in, with my mind’s eye, the rest of the picture? Do I know what the rest of the picture is? Does this practice help me develop my creativity or stifle it? How is looking so closely at nature going to affect my own image making? As is the case with all the other images, what am I going to do with them? Can my curiosity ever be satisfied when there is a whole new world to explore?
Acorn detail
Lichen
Pigeon feather detail
White Carrara marble
Resin
Textiles
Thorny leaves
Oak leaf
Acorn Embryo was accepted by The House of Smalls for their exhibition “This Volatile State”. This is how I describe the body of work from which this came:
Microcosm of life
Photography
I am now working in many different directions to explore what lies around me. I have found that working with a microscope lens attachment to my iphone allows me to see physical life as I know it but which I so often ignore / overlook / have no means to see. This is the first time that I have seen an acorn in its smallest manifestation, as soon as it made an appearance on an oak tree on my usual daily walk this lockdown spring. I have called it Acorn Embryo because that is what sprang to mind when I first saw it – I know it’s not an animal but the watery quality of it made me think it was.
