Revelations: Experiments in Photography closed on 3 February 2016. For details of our current exhibitions, take a look at our what’s on page.
Featuring some of the rarest images from pioneers of photography, this exhibition explored the influence of early scientific photography on modern and contemporary art.
Gallery
Archetype of Individuality—Microphotograph of Diatoms, 360-1, 1933, Carl Strüwe
© Carl-Strüwe Archive Bielefeld, VG Bild-Kunst
Blow Up, Untitled 1, 2007, Ori Gersht
© Ori Gersht, private collection
Bullet through Apple, 1964—Color
© Harold Edgerton, MIT, 2015, courtesy of Palm Press, Inc.
Central part of the Orion Nebula, 1875, Etienne Trouvelot & ES Holden for US Naval Observatory
© Science Museum Group collection
Daguerreotype of the Moon, 1851, John Adams Whipple
© Science Museum Group collection
Experiments with Beta Rays, 1901, Henri Becquerel
© Science Museum Group collection
Glass Plate X-Ray Negative, 1896, Sir William Crookes
© Science Museum Group collection
Insect wings, c.1840. William Henry Fox Talbot
© Science Museum Group collection
Lightning Fields 216, 2009, Hiroshi Sugimoto
© Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Long Jump from Standing Start, 1887, Eadweard Muybridge
© Science Museum Group collection
Microphotograph of Stelsel 8 (system 8), 2011, Joris Jansen
© Joris Rafael Jansen
Muzzle Flash, from the Celestial Objects Series, 2013, Sarah Pickering
© Sarah Pickering
Ohne Titel Dessau, Laszlo Moholy Nagy, 1926
© Laszlo Moholy Nagy, courtesy of Museum Folkwang
Proboscis of the Hummingbird Hawk Moth, 1928, Carl Strüwe
© Carl Strüwe Archive
Stereoscopic Lunar Photographs No.4, 1858 and 1859, Warren De La Rue
© Science Museum Group collection
The Flight of a Baton, 60 Flashes per Second, 1953—Black & White
© Harold Edgerton, MIT, 2015, courtesy of Palm Press, Inc.
Transparency (Positive), 2011, Walead Beshty
© Walead Beshty, courtesy private collection
X Ray of Angelfish & Surgeonfish, 1896, Eduard Valenta & Josef Maria Eder
© Science Museum Group collectionAbout the exhibition
From the 1840s, scientists were using photography to record and measure phenomena which lay beyond human vision. The beauty of these early images, and the revolutionary techniques developed for scientific study, shaped the history of photography and heavily influenced modern and contemporary art photographers.
Revelations showcased some of the earliest photographic images by figures such as William Henry Fox Talbot and Eadweard Muybridge, alongside striking works by modern and contemporary artists including Harold Edgerton and Hiroshi Sugimoto.
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