Analgesic Untaken

Crystals are among nature’s most arresting physical forms. They are most familiar in their three-dimensional incarnations, as in diamonds and sugar grains. They also grow in flatter formats, such as frost and soap scum. As a practitioner of an artform known as crystal micrography, I coerce substances to recrystallize onto microscope slides, view them with light and optical filters such as polarizers, and photograph them.

To my delight, each 3” x 1” slide bearing crystals amounts to a national park writ small, harboring astonishing views of natural formations as I tour around the slide with my microscope. Most often the microscapes I capture with my camera and work into prints like this one are similar in size to a sesame seed or lentil.