“To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.”
―
Communion: Exploring Other Worlds
The photograph I titled “Communion” is hanging in my gallery. Lately it has gotten a lot of attention. It is mysterious & provocative. If you look closely you can see what appears to be a floor. What are those spherical bubbles? Are they stationary? Are they moving? How large are they? What exactly are we looking at? These are some of the questions visitors have asked me. I tell them what they are seeing and how I came to make this photograph. But there is more to this story, plus two other images intimately connected to this photograph. The following narrative reveals how I found and photographed these incredible bubbles and how a fortunate accident revealed an amazing view into another world.
Here is what you’re seeing:
About a quart of clear viscous liquid is contained in a clear rectangular acrylic chamber. The bubbles are tiny, the size of pin heads, and suspended in the fluid. The container sits in my studio under controlled lighting with a black backdrop. My tripod-mounted camera records the scene via a macro (super close-up lens). I rotate the chamber slowly, looking for compositions as the bubbles change relationships with each other. I see starbursts as I work the scene. It is a delightful voyage as I explore the beauty of light and form in this micro world. The photograph Communion is the best of the evening’s work.
Discovery: How it All Began
If you have shopped at Costco you’ll know that many consumable products come in over-sized containers. You might wonder if you’d live long enough to use the contents up! One afternoon I noticed a quart container of generic, clear hand sanitizer. It made me chuckle, but then I stopped because something caught my eye. The viscous liquid was loaded with tiny, suspended bubbles. Perfect little spheres that sparkled in the light! Fascinated with views into a smaller world, I couldn’t resist this item. I thought it worthy of a photo exploration.
Back at my studio, I put the bottle on the end of my work table where it was soon forgotten. Then one day, purely by accident, I saw something that stopped me in my tracks. The back door of my studio was open in the late afternoon and the sunlight streaming in trans-illuminated the bubble-filled liquid. It was a moment of serendipity–I would not have seen it if I hadn’t been working later than usual. Plus the door had to be open at that moment on that day. Everything was perfectly aligned–the moment in time, the angle of the beam of light, just everything was synchronized! I stared for a moment, captivated by this small world of bubbles brilliantly backlit. I took the container outside and placed it on birdbath pedestal, got my tripod and camera and made a few exposures. Here is the best of my first exploratory work.
Star Seeds: A Fortunate Accident Reveals an Other-Worldly View
The evening after I photographed Communion I returned to the studio to look for more compositions. That night I worked very late, losing all sense of time. Very late, looking for “just one more composition,” I loosened the tripod head to adjust the camera angle. Bang! I moved too quickly and the camera cantilevered toward the container, knocking it over, making a messy spill on my table. Damn, I had pushed myself too far! I was irritated with my carelessness and walked slowly around the table to retrieve a towel to clean up the puddle. As I was about to begin the cleanup, the light on the puddle caught my eye. It was gorgeous–other worldly! Star-bursts and jelly-wave patterns created a mysterious tableau. I reset the camera and made the following photograph–Star Seeds.
“To see a World in a grain of sand….”
Cool story of your capture!
Nice catch on all 3 of these images.
I like this, Marty!