Deborah Harding
Sand
These photos are of beach sand grains. They really are! They are sand grains seen under a microscope. The super-imposed scale, bottom left of each photo, represents 1mm in real life. How ‘unreal’ is that! The sands were collected from Western Australian beaches during a 6-month artist residency. They are grains from geological and biological eons; rocks and remnants of sea life, eroded over time by wind and water.
Beach sand lies at the border of land and sea; at the boundary of the physical and the numinous. For me, these photos express something of who I am; that I stand outwardly solid upon the ground, centred, and also have an inner life that swims at one within an infinite ocean of imagination. These photos physically and metaphorically speak about both the outer and inner worlds we inhabit. Real and unreal is subjective.
Of technical details, these photos were taken using a Nikon SMZ-745T trifocal optical light microscope and dedicated Tuscen TCC3.3ICE-N CCD 5.3MP camera. The microscope dark field was used underneath, and the sand top-lit with LED spotlights. Each photo is composite, made up of many digital images that have been ‘stacked’ and ‘stitched’.
For this work, I am indebted to the generous support of the University of Western Australia, Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation, and Analysis (CMCA). To ‘Coherent Scientific’ for the loan to CMCA of a specific microscope for my work. To Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia for the artist residency and studio space.