Nikon has been at the forefront of showcasing beautiful microscope photography, or photomicrography, for over 30 years. Their website Small World and in particular its web gallery from that period shows some very beautiful images. This is a great way to assess how this art form has advanced since 1997.

Nikon’s description of what makes a good image is interesting:

“A photomicrograph is a technical document that can be of great significance to science or industry. But a good photomicrograph is also an image whose structure, color, composition, and content is an object of beauty, open to several levels of comprehension and appreciation.”

Clearly this is a great example of using highly technical equipment to show or create a new art form. This includes the following technologies:

“The subject matter is unrestricted and any type of light microscopy technique is acceptable, including phase contrast, polarized light, fluorescence, interference contrast, darkfield, confocal, deconvolution, and mixed techniques.”

The deadline for this years competition is April 30, 2009. Enter here.