#somereallygoodones, #snowflakebentley, #vermont
A home grown but not famous master photographer would be Wilson A. Bentley aka “Snowflake” Bentley (1865-1931), a self-taught artist who was obsessed with the singular beauty of snowflakes.
It is wonderful and odd story of the son of dairy farmers in Jericho, Vermont who, as a young man, wanted a microscope and large format camera. He spent his lifetime photographing snowflakes up close and the proselytizing about their beauty. Bentley was a visionary, a study in perseverance whose passion was snowflakes. The cruelest irony is in his 70s he caught and succumbed to pneumonia walking home in a snowstorm.
His still life portraits are achingly beautiful. Bentley lectured tirelessly and used glass plate slides which are themselves works of beauty.
“Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty, and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone without ever leaving any record behind.” 1925.
His book “Snow Crystals” (McGraw/Hill) has been in print since it was published in 1931.
He was an American original.
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