Dek Unu Magazine – Bevil Templeton-Smith

It’s axiomatic among photographers and appreciators that photography helps one to see. The medium’s ability to stop time, change its focus, frame its fragments is its superpower. Diane Arbus said, “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” That is overwhelmingly true with Bevil Templeton-Smith’s digital microscopy. Working with an antique research microscope, an artist’s eye, and considerable mechanical ingenuity, he shows us what an even tinier sliver of an almost invisibly small crystal of sweetener looks like. Arbus’s, and every other successful photographer’s best work produces a reaction, a discovery, a flash, a moment of recognition which often results in a like, a love, a wow, or the ever-popular “WTF.” Bevil Templeton-Smith’s very large, incandescent, abstract photography demonstrates that point superbly. His voice is clear, his designs are crafty, and those vibrating colors get a “Woah!” all on their own.