Photo competition winners on display at Indiana State Museum
INDIANAPOLIS — Visitors can surround themselves with the beauty and complexity of the world’s microscopic wonders, as the top 20 photos from the 48th annual Nikon Small World photomicrography competition will be on display from Dec. 1 through Feb. 15 at the Indiana State Museum.
Small World is regarded as the leading forum for showcasing life as seen through the light microscope. The winning photos, which will hang in the third-floor Thomas A. King Bridge Gallery, are as notable for their vivid colors as they are for their unusual subject matter.
First place was awarded to Grigorii Timin, supervised by Dr. Michel Milinkovitch at the University of Geneva, for his remarkable image of an embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko. A visually stunning and painstaking technique, Timin used high-resolution microscopy and image-stitching to merge hundreds of images together to create the final photo.
Among the other winning images, visitors can see everything from unique scientific specimens, like neurons derived from human neural stem cells and the blood vessel networks in a mouse, to everyday household subjects, like a daddy long-legs spider and the wick of a candle — all magnified to reveal their intricacies in a dazzling array of colors.
The Nikon Small World competition began in 1975 as a means to recognize and applaud the efforts of those involved with photomicrography. Open to amateur and professional photographers alike, this year’s competition received nearly 1,300 entries from 72 countries.
Nikon Small World is free for Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites members and included with regular admission. Attendees can go to IndianaMuseum.org to plan their visit and purchase admission.
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The Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites is a museum system with 12 locations, offering visitors a chance to engage with Indiana’s past and present and see how their actions help shape the future. At each location, visitors are invited to explore big questions and create lasting experiences that will resonate long after each visit ends. Whether interested in art or architecture, history or science, there’s something for everyone and every interest. The Indianapolis museum is located in White River State Park in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. The historic sites are located across the state, stretching from Rome City in northeastern Indiana to Evansville in the southwest.
