The innovative photos that proved no two snowflakes are alike

[NelsonG]

Image: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Raised on a farm in Jericho, Vermont, Wilson Alwyn Bentley became fascinated with the crystalline patterns of snowflakes at a young age.

As a teenager, he began trying to sketch the delicate formations with the aid of an old microscope, but found them melting or sublimating into vapor before he could draw them in any detail.

After much tinkering, Bentley devised a way to connect his microscope to the bellows of a large-format view camera, and finally captured a photograph of a complete snowflake on January 15, 1885.

He photographed over 5,000 more snowflakes over the following decades, capturing each crystal on a microscope slide backed by black velvet, working quickly to capture a photo before it disappeared. Read more...

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