The Hidden Beauty of Seeds & Fruits on display at Botanica August 4 - October 25.

The Hidden Beauty of Seeds & Fruits displays the carpology collection of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh like never before. Photographer Levon Biss painstakingly examined 3,500 historical specimens to select just 115 for inclusion, highlighting those with the most striking evolutionary adaptations and stories. Many of the specimens date back to the early 19th Century and were collected by the pioneering botanists of their time, including those on the Challenger Expedition in 1872. Throughout history, scientists have used herbaria to help them interpret the diversity of plants and fungi. Crops, poisonous plants, garden plants, medicinal plants, tiny herbs, giant rainforest trees —all kinds of plants and fungi are represented. Herbaria act as ‘libraries’ of plant material and are crucial in helping us to determine which plants grow where and how we can differentiate them. The images presented by Levon allow the audience to appreciate and study these tiny specimens in levels of detail normally only available with the use of microscopes. Using his photo stacking techniques and bespoke camera system, Levon is able to capture unprecedented levels of detail from specimens far too small to view with the naked eye providing us with an insight into an unseen world


The Process
The specimens within this exhibition vary widely in size, ranging from fruits the size of a football, down to tiny seeds just millimeters long. The vast majority of the specimens on display are from the smaller end of this spectrum and therefore required a specific photographic technique called ‘photo stacking’ to capture the level of detail and clarity shown in the photographs. One of the inherent problems with high magnification photography is that it produces a ‘shallow depth of field.’ This means there is very little in focus within the image at any one time. To overcome this, Levon attaches his camera to an electronic rail that he can automate to move forward in tiny increments as low as a few microns between pictures. This creates a large stack of images that are then blended together, retaining only the areas that are sharp to produce a final photograph that is fully focused from front to back. The smaller the specimen, the more magnification is required and therefore a larger stack of pictures are needed to create the final photograph. The smallest images within this exhibition will have been made from hundreds of individual photographs, but it is not uncommon for Levon combine thousands of images to create a single photograph, a process that can take several weeks.


The Hidden Beauty of Seeds and Fruits: The botanical photography of Levon Biss from the collection of The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. This exhibition is organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York.