https://www.trebeljahr.com/posts/diatoms Open main menu trebeljahrtrebeljahr postsnewslettersphotographyresourcesabout 1. Home 2. Posts 3. Diatoms September 18, 2024 by Rico Trebeljahr Diatom Arrangements The Hidden Beauty of Single Cell Algae Art Arrangements This post is a bit of an odd one: it's a collection of images of diatom arrangements. Diatoms are single-celled algae that have a glass shell, that refracts light in beautiful colors if viewed under a microscope. They are a common subject for microscopy because of their unique shapes. They come in triangles. diatom-triangle-shaped Circles. circular-diatom Eggs. diatom-egg-shaped Polygons. diatom-polygon Stars. diatom-star-shaped And all sorts of other shapes. diatom-fidget-spinner Because of their unique shapes people have been arranging them into intricate patterns and designs since the Victorian era. Somehow this fascinated me so much, that I decided to collect a bunch of images of these arrangements from all over the web and compile them here in one single place, so that I can come back to them whenever I want to. Every image that you see here can only be seen under a microscope and each of these tiny artworks is around a milimetre in size: Roughly the size of a small drop of water or a grain of sand... This is how a microscopic slide with any of these arrangements would look like: diatom-slide-1 They are like tiny specks of dust, barely visible to the naked eye. And the amount of dexterity and patience that is necessary to create even one of these miniature art pieces is astonishing and there are only a handful of people in the world who practice this curious form of art. Collecting, cleaning, arranging, and fixing the diatoms is a process that can take days or even weeks. But in the end, the result of all this work is absolutely worth it. I've organized the images by the people who created them, with a note of the photographer. None of these images are my own, I gave credit were I could find it. But now, without further ado let's dive into the world of diatom arrangements. Behold. The hidden beauty of diatoms. ian-micrographia-31 Klaus Kemp Klaus Kemp was a master of diatom arrangements and he was one of the people rediscovering and perfecting this art form. Many designs you'll find on the internet go back to him. Sadly, he passed away in 2022. * In Memoriam Article by the Diatom Samples Weebly * Short Biography by the International Society of Diatom Research * The Diatomist Short Film (highly recommended watching) The ones below are screenshots from the Diatomist Short Film. klaus-kemp-1 klaus-kemp-2 klaus-kemp-33 klaus-kemp-26 klaus-kemp-28 klaus-kemp-23 klaus-kemp-24 klaus-kemp-4 klaus-kemp-6 klaus-kemp-9 klaus-kemp-10 klaus-kemp-11 klaus-kemp-12 klaus-kemp-13 klaus-kemp-14 klaus-kemp-15 klaus-kemp-16 klaus-kemp-17 klaus-kemp-18 klaus-kemp-19 klaus-kemp-21 And a few more by other photographers: Two photographed by Alex Hyde. He's on Instagram and has a website too. alex-hyde alex-hyde The next four were photographed by Jonathan Crowther. He writes extensively about microscopy and diatoms on his website too. klaus-kemp-25 klaus-kemp-30 klaus-kemp-31 klaus-kemp-32 The next two were photographed by Dr. Stephen Nagy. He has participated in the Nikon Small World Photography Competition and runs an old website collecting info on diatoms. klaus-kemp-29 klaus-kemp-8 Jan Rosenboom Jan Rosenboom is a young fellow from Germany, who has learnt the art form of Diatom Arrangement on his own with the help of some friends. He's into photographing the smallest aspects of nature under microscopes and has some beautiful photos of diatom arrangements (and insects and a bunch of other curious things) on his Instagram and Website. You should really go check him out! dunkirk-1 dunkirk-2 jan-rosenboom-1 jan-rosenboom-2 jan-rosenboom-3 jan-rosenboom-4 jan-rosenboom-5 jan-rosenboom-6 jan-rosenboom-7 jan-rosenboom-8 jan-rosenboom-9 jan-rosenboom-10 jan-rosenboom-11 jan-rosenboom-12 jan-rosenboom-13 jan-rosenboom-14 J.D. Moller Much of J.D. Moller's work was photographed by Matthias Burba. He's on Instagram and has an old website showcasing his work. matthias-burba-1 matthias-burba-2 j-d-moeller-1 j-d-moeller-2 j-d-moeller-3 j-d-moeller-4 j-d-moeller-5 j-d-moeller-6 j-d-moeller-7 j-d-moeller-8 Moller also has a profile on the Microscopist's Net Website. If you scroll down there you can see that he also did some sick microphotography stuff. R. I. Firth r-i-firth-1 r-i-firth-2 r-i-firth-3 Steve Beats * Source steve-beats-1 steve-beats-2 W. M. Grant w-m-grant-1 w-m-grant-2 Watson and Sons watson-and-sons-1 watson-and-sons-2 watson-and-sons-4 watson-and-sons-5 watson-and-sons-6 Eduard Thum * Microscopist's Net Website for Eduard Thum e-thum-1 e-thum-2 e-thum-3 Ian Jones Ian Jones is a microscopist and photographer who has a lot of diatom arrangements on his website. He's still alive and even has an Instagram account where he publishes other Microphotography stuff as well. ian-micrographia-1 ian-micrographia-2 ian-micrographia-3 ian-micrographia-4 ian-micrographia-5 ian-micrographia-6 ian-micrographia-7 ian-micrographia-8 ian-micrographia-9 ian-micrographia-10 ian-micrographia-11 ian-micrographia-12 ian-micrographia-14 ian-micrographia-16 ian-micrographia-17 ian-micrographia-18 ian-micrographia-20 ian-micrographia-22 ian-micrographia-23 ian-micrographia-24 ian-micrographia-25 ian-micrographia-26 ian-micrographia-27 ian-micrographia-28 ian-micrographia-29 ian-micrographia-30 ian-micrographia-31 ian-micrographia-32 ian-micrographia-33 ian-micrographia-34 ian-micrographia-35 ian-micrographia-36 ian-micrographia-37 ian-micrographia-38 ian-micrographia-39 ian-micrographia-40 ian-micrographia-41 ian-micrographia-42 ian-micrographia-43 ian-micrographia-44 ian-micrographia-45 ian-micrographia-47 ian-micrographia-48 ian-micrographia-49 ian-micrographia-50 Edmund Wheeler * Microscopist's Net Website for Edmund Wheeler edmund-wheeler-1 Gregor Overney * His Nikon Small World Profile gregor-overney-1 Osamu Oku * Article on him by Asahi.com osamu-oku-1 osamu-oku-2 Jose Almodovar * Nikon Small World Competition Entry jose-almodovar-1 Robert Berdan * His Website robert-berdan-1 Wim van Egmond * His Website * His Instagram wim-van-egmond-1 wim-van-egmond-2 wim-van-egmond-3 Further Reading and Sources * http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjun15/ sb-Diatom-Arranging.pdf * https://groups.io/g/diatom-forum * https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/01/ arranged-diatoms-miniscule-algae-specimens-arranged-on-microscope-slides / * https://twitter.com/DiatomAppSoc * http://microscopist.net/ * https://victorianmicroscopeslides.com/slidedia.htm * https://www.mccrone.com/mm/ the-collecting-cleaning-and-mounting-of-diatoms/ * https://montanadiatoms.tripod.com/ * https://lavinia.as.arizona.edu/~mtuell/images/comparison/ diatom.php * https://champagnewhisky.com/tag/al-brigger/ * https://macrocosmosblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/ diatom-drama-my-imaging-journey/ * https://diatomimaging.com/gallery1/ Subscribe to Live and Learn Twice a month. 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