The culture of culture plate photography

Abstract

In medical illustration, we all know the role of specimen photography and as part of that the photography of culture plates for records, research and publication. However, there has been a trend towards a wider use of cultures in an artistic context whether part of public understanding of science or as a means of personal expression of identity. The sequence of culture plate photographs in this gallery are really of the ordinary rather than the extraordinary or artistic. The photography of cultures of different colours has even become an art form in its own right. A range of images can be seen online including: Image of the Day: Unusual Fungi Reproduction: A variety of yeasts collected near Woods Hole, Massachusetts, show unconventional cell division, https://www.the-scientist.com/image-of-the-day/image-ofthe-day–unusual-fungi-reproduction-66648 ‘We all have a stake in the future of food’ say curators of V&A’s Bigger than the Plate exhibition https://www.dezeen.com/2019/05/16/v-and-a-bigger-than-the-plate-exhibition/ Giant E.coli sculpture forms centrepiece of bacteria exhibition Back to bacteria https://www.culturecalling.com/uk/features/back-to-bacteria and https://www.independent. ie/entertainment/giant-ecoli-sculpture-forms-centrepiece-of-bacteria-exhibition-37433429.html Becoming Acculturated: Techniques for deep dives into the microbial dark matter https://www.the-scientist. com/lab-tools/becoming-acculturated-33610 Harvard scientists capture microbes in all their beauty https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/10/harvard-scientists-turn-beauty-of-microbes-into-museum-material/ Living Art: Meet the Woman Making Sculptures With Bacteria from Her Skin https://www.vice.com/en/article/53n7d3/living-art-meet-the-woman-making-sculptures-with-bacteria-from-her-skin Photographer transforms bacteria found on the New York City subway into art https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/photographer-transforms-bacteria-found-on-the-new-york-citysubway-into-art/ Creating visually interesting bacteria, The most beautiful bacteria you’ll ever see https://www.pharmamicroresources.com/2017/05/the-most-beautiful-bacteria-youll-ever.html This Art Exhibition Is Made From Bacteria, Live Insects And Human Sweat https://www.gizmodo.com.au/ 2017/04/this-art-exhibition-is-made-from-bacteria-live-insects-and-human-sweat/ There are also the books and papers on how to photograph culture plates, including Leon Le Beau, 1992 in Biomedical Photography by Vetter, A Simple Method of Photographing ouchterlony Plates by Jones and Marshall (1960), historical methods for printing directly onto photographic paper by Buchholz and Lewis (1930), photography of large colonies with darkfield illumination (Kulka, Preston, & Walker, 1951) and a range of examples and papers about using time lapse to record bacterial growth (Cobo et al., 2017) and the intelligence of slime moulds (Rennie & Reading-Ikkanda, 2017).