We’ve recently seen the fascinating micro-worlds in the winning videos of Nikon Small World in Motion competition. Now there are also the results of 2017 Nikon Small World photo contest, and they are simply amazing. Some photos come from scientific labs and show a colorful world of bacteria, algae or cells. But the others show stuff we see every day in a whole new perspective. Have you ever thought mold on a tomato, a credit card hologram or a daddy longlegs’ eyes can look beautiful? Well, the winners of this photo contest show that they can.
The Nikon Small World Competition is open to anyone interested in photography through the microscope. While Nikon is celebrating 100th anniversary this year, the Small World contest has announced winners of the 43rd annual competition. They have received over 2,000 entries from 88 countries around the globe: the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Winners don’t include only professional photographers, but hobbyists as well.
This year, the first place was awarded to Dr. Bram van den Broek of The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI). He took the photo of a skin cell expressing an excessive amount of keratin while he and the associates were researching the dynamics of keratin filaments. The second place photo was taken by Dr. Havi Sarfaty of Yahud-Monoson from Israel. It captures a subject we see every day, but from a microscopic perspective. It’s the flowering head of otherwise a rather unappealing plant – groundsel (senecio vulgaris). He says he “submitted this photo because of how it represents the unseen complexity of a supposedly simple garden flower.” The photo that took the third place belongs to Mr. Jean-Marc Bablian of Nantes, France. And no, it’s not Pacman, but a living volvox algae releasing its daughter colonies. Take a look at the rest of the top 20 photos from the contest: In addition to the first, second and third prize winners, Nikon Small World recognized an additional 85 photos from all the entries they’d received. Other than the first 20 places, there are also honorable mentions and images of distinction. I chose a couple of them I found the most appealing (a tough choice, I must say), and you can see the entire list here. As I mentioned, the winners of the contest include both hobbyists and professionals. So if you’re interested in participating, you can apply, too. And even if not, I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did.
