These microscopic images from Nature Through Microscope and Camera (1909), by Arthur E Smith, look more like abstract works of horror-art than photographs of real things. I always love seeing life up close in a way that makes it look completely alien and unrecognizable. These would make amazing prints to decorate a room.
My favorite in the collection is the 'Larva of an Ant Lion". While the silhouette of an ant is visible in the image, it looks more like a scratchy, experimental ink drawing than a real insect. The image titled "Foot of Water Beetle, Dytiscus Marginalis" has the same stunning quality that makes it look more like a charcoal or ink drawing than reality.
From the Public Domain review: "Little information is given about Arthur E Smith but we do know that the photographs featured in the book "were exhibited at the Royal Society's Annual Conversazione, May 13, 1904", so Kerr tells us in the opening chapter, and "done on 12 by 10 plates directly through the microscope and camera combined as one instrument" with the negatives receiving "no 'touching-up' whatever." The stunning images are achieved by simply photographing the images seen through a microscope, a process which Arthur E Smith himself explains in the only chapter he writes in the book."
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