Hidden Landscapes

Hidden Landscapes: Photomicrographs of an Unseen Universe.

Inspired by the work of Miro, Tanguy and Klee, architectural photographer and former molecular biologist Steven Brooke turned his sights to the microscopic world. What he discovered were fantastic landscapes of limitless scale and profound beauty that often echoed the terrain of the science fiction book covers that continue to fascinate him.

Using a wide variety of compounds and highly refined methods of purification, Brooke combined his photographic expertise and compositional virtuosity with exacting microscopy techniques to extract surreal and bizarre treasures from beneath the threshold of everyday vision. Through the lens of the microscope, the eye hovers over crystalline cities and seemingly ancient ruins; it breaks through lattice-like barriers that open onto infinite horizons; it glides along translucent shards of crystals, glowing from within; and it navigates through galalctic formations inhabited by forms that seem to exist on the border between the inanimate and animate worlds.

Purposely untitled and with no indication about their composition or scale, the viewer is left to travel through these hidden landscapes guided only by imagination.