Wim van Egmond

Wim van Egmond (The Hague, 1966) Science has always fascinated me and my work has a certain affinity with it. Photography is an unusual mixture of technique and perception: the camera acts as a surrogate eye, a mechanical observation device that enables us to capture an image. I am particularly interested in those areas where photography deviates from human perception. This is one of the reasons why I started using optical techniques to increase our scope. I have specialised in photography and videography through the microscope. Between 2010 and 2015 I’ve helped to create the first museum about micro-organisms Micropia in Amsterdam. One of the main subjects that I had to capture was fungi. I have been portraying fungi ever since, both in still images as in time-lapse film. I focus mainly on the hidden side of fungi, the microscopic hyphae and fruitig bodies of molds. I have been collaborating extensively with mycologists from the Westerdijk institute and soil ecologists from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands) Another area of interest to me is the history of microscopy. I've studied the 17th century microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. I even had the chance to with his original microscopes. He was the first person to observe fungal spores and described in full detailed how they are formed. During my presentation I will demonstrate various methods to make a Leeuwenhoek style microscope the simplest possible way.