Wonder Up Close

• Prize
  Silver in Fine Art/Abstract
• Photographer
  Bevil Templeton-Smith
• Technical Info
  1970 Polarising Microscope Photographs Of Crystals Of Sweetener And Other Substances
• Photo Date
  2025

Wonder Up Close is a set of photographs of crystals of various household substances in polarised light on my 1970 polarising microscope. They have no recognisable subject to hint at their scale. There is no figure or still life object to help to orient the viewer. The result is no more than a colourful vista of shape and form, eliciting a visual adventure, but intentionally leaving the viewer questioning what they are looking at. They must take it or leave it on this basis. Entirely real subjects in their natural colour palette created by a combination of polarising filters and wave plate.

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)