5: Snowflake Bentley
[Click bottom image for larger view.]
Top:
Mary Azarian (illustrator) and Jacqueline Briggs Martin (writer)
Excerpted page from children's book Snowflake Bentley, published 1998
Illustration from woodcut prints with applied color, dimensions in book approx 10.25" x 10.5"
Bottom:
Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley
Sample snowflake 'photomicrograph' negatives, examples of work done 1885-1931 (Wilson's death)
Around this time of year I usually end up dwelling on Wilson 'Snowflake' Bentley, probably because when that children's book that massively raised his profile (at least outside Vermont) first came out, I was 7 — at exactly the right age to take an interest myself but also to have it read at me by numerous teachers, librarians and assorted adults every winter for the next several years. It's been programmed, basically.
And the photographs themselves are beautiful and completely worth dwelling on, obviously. But these days it's more about the 'whether' and 'how' of focused obsession vs. wide-ranging interest, and trying to figure out what Bentley's work actually represents of that split.
In other words, at first glance a collection of 5,000-ish photographs, all of the same subject in basically the same format, produced with rigged-up specialty equipment under often-subzero temperatures over a period of decades, would appear to be the product of a single-minded obsession. (Which wouldn't be to knock it if it was — if you want an argument for nurturing an interest over time, this increasingly sophisticated, poignant body of work is pretty eloquent in explaining the benefits.)
But I'm not sure 'obsession' is the word to use here. Bentley had a general interest in science, especially meteorology (he also studied raindrops, fog, clouds, and other types of water and ice formations), seems to have expressed this most via scientific illustration (he tried to draw his observations first, and was often quite poetical about the beauty of nature), and then combined all that with an interest in the still-developing technology of photography. All in his spare time, because he was still a farmer first.
It's focused activity, sure, but a lot of that focus comes from outside limitations. Scientific illustration (i.e. direct observation) would be the best bet for indulging a love of science when you don't have a ton of time or room to tinker, especially if you also have an eye for natural beauty. If you're interested in weather and the water cycle, snowflakes would be one of the easiest ways to grab onto that, as one of the more individualized, longest-lasting forms water takes. Photography worked better than drawing, giving the time constraints on the subjects. Also it was Vermont, so there was just a lot of snow.
Long story short, what impulse was Bentley actually following? His broad interests seem to have remained the same or grown organically, but given the opportunity, would he have split his focus more to swivel around looking at different things? How much of his approach to emulate, or see as pitfall/limitation? (Aside from 'walk home in a blizzard so you die of pneumonia', which seems like a pretty clear 'don't-do'.)