Vitamin A(rt)

As a child,Spike Walker was immensely obsessed with the minutiae of the natural world.

As a child,Spike Walker was immensely obsessed with the minutiae of the natural world. Noticing his fascination,his father gifted him a microscope on his ninth birthday. Young Walker began taking photographs through the microscope lens using a home-made camera and has continued to do so for the past 60 years. Over the years,he has photographed just about everything that can come under a microscope and the spirit of scientific inquiry developed into an interest in the artistic qualities of the images. What pleases me now is to see people enjoying the beauty at the same time as they learn about the secrets the hidden world can reveal to us, explains Walker,who is now 77 years old. This British photomicrographer,formerly a zoology teacher,is exhibiting his photo collection Wo:Men with a vision at Westin Hotel,Koregaon Park till September 7. The art show has been organised by Cambridge-based creative arts company,Art Naturally,which is foraying into the Indian art market for the first time.

We believe that Indian culture,with its celebration of colour and the spirit of nature and its appetite for science and technology,is perfect for the appreciation of these works. We chose Pune because the city has a reputation for creativity and strong connections with science and technology, said Nichola Harrison,chief executive,Art Naturally. Being a historian and land economist,Harrison works in the political field but has always aspired to be a scientist,particularly a biologist. As she read numerous science books and magazines,she noticed that scientists produce many wonderful images through the microscope and other methods. I felt that these images ought to be available to a wider audience and so I founded Art Naturally, says Harrison,who hopes to take the exhibition to other Indian cities as well.

The images that are exhibited at Wo:Men with a vision are created in a scientific process from objects of minuscule scale. The objects,such as aspirin crystals,dopamine crystals and phenylanthranilic acid,when captured through the lens of a microscope and ared viewed at a size thousands of times larger,the objects begin to reveal their amazing beauty. The sample chosen for the exhibition is mainly of chemical crystals which tend to produce colourful and interesting forms which are easy to appreciate as abstract art. I see myself as revealing,rather than creating these images. Of course,I make use of many standard techniques available in microscopy but I find it marvellous that these amazing images are there,waiting to be discovered. One of my favourite materials is Vitamin C,which produces an amazing variety of forms, adds Walker,also a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and the winner of the Societys Combined Royal Medical Colleges Medal for his contribution to medicine. Besides,he is also a holder of the Royal Microscopical Societys Glauert Medal.

The collection includes 30 images,which,says Walker is a just a tiny fraction of his total collection. Infact,his house in Cambridge (UK),boasts of several optical microscopes and a full-fledged lab. Microscopy,he says,is also about the techniques used to reveal the structure of specimens. Im always trying to invent new techniques that make things look a bit better. I think that kind of inquisitiveness is what led me to get interested in the artistic side of scientific imaging what I call the collision between art and science, says the photomicrographer.

These days,Walker is busy focussing on botanical and zoological subjects such as organisms found in ordinary pond and river water. Its not too hard to discover a new sub-species in a small drop of water, he concludes.

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Koregaon Park