The Man Who Photographed Snowflakes

Posted by Chris Tingom on January 22, 2007 at 5:00 am.

Wilson A. “Snowflake” Bentley (1865–1931), born in Jericho, Vermont, USA, is the first known photographer of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or evaporated.

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He photographed more than 5,000 “crystals” in his lifetime. His process was to capture them on a blackboard, and then shuffle them onto black velvet. You can see more of his collection here.

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  • Comment posted by Will Ayers on January 22, 2007 at 8:18 pm
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  • Wow, that is amazing. To think that those snowflakes look the way they are when they are created naturally and the fact of those photos taken around 1900.

  • Comment posted by Anonymous on December 18, 2007 at 3:07 am
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  • i love them

  • Comment posted by Anonymous on February 4, 2008 at 7:31 pm
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  • ‘Wow.To think that millions of tiny cristals could be pictured on a blanket of black velvet. Wow. Now that we have the technology to have pictures of snowflakes,I wonder if we might be able to photograph wind.’

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