“No two snowflakes are alike”
Snowflakes caught on black velvet then captured by light sensitive plates
"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."
"A careful study of this internal structure not only reveals new and far greater elegance of form than the simple outlines exhibit, but by means of these wonderfully delicate and exquisite figures much may be learned of the history of each crystal, and the changes through which it has passed in its journey through cloud-land. Was ever life history written in more dainty hieroglyphics!"
Wilson Bentley (1865-1931)
Biography from the Museum of Everything
Wilson Snowflake Bentley was a farmer, entrepreneur, meteorologist and artist, who dedicated his life to the photography of snow.
Born in 1865 to a poor country family in Vermont, Bentley's imagination was first sparked by his mother's gift of a microscope on his 15th birthday. Bentley taught himself how to use the contraption, combined it with a Bellow's camera and embarked upon his creative journey.
By the age of 20, Bentley had taught himself how to immortalise the structure of frozen water on glass plates. Over the next 40 years, he would assemble a vast encyclopaedia of scientific abstraction, photographing several thousands of individual snowflakes and frosts.
Bentley's achievements led to a greater understanding of the uniqueness, importance and beauty of this natural form. Yet Bentley was far more than a passionate hobbyist. He was a self-styled outlier and adventurer, who realised the potential of microphotography to capture the impossible individuality of each and every crystalline flake.
In his lifetime, Bentley proselytised his discoveries across the United States, sending prints and plates to Museums, Universities and more. The public and press championed his achievements; yet the scientific and cultural communities of the time were often reluctant to welcome the innovations of this pioneering image maker.
Today, over one hundred years later, Bentley's photographs are celebrated not simply as science, but as art. His microphotographs are featured in public and private collections worldwide, and are regularly curated in exhibitions such as Massimiliano Gioni's The Keeper at the New Museum in New York (2016) and The Museum of Everything in Rotterdam (2016) and Australia (2017/18).
Wilson Snowflake Bentley died of pneumonia after being caught in a snowstorm in 1931.
Sources:
The Gallery of Everything is London's first commercial space dedicated non-academic and private art-making
We grew up constantly hearing this phrase!
Edit: the Natural History Museum in London has digitised his book from 1899 which is in the public domain, link below
