Gianfranco Merati Studio

Science, nature, and discovery infuse all my work. I use my photography practice to explore and test the limits of visual perception. I approach all my projects in a bespoke way; starting with researching and exploring the properties of the material selected so I can understand how to work it. I then begin experimenting with light. I explore how best to use it to contour the subject matter for clear and descriptive images. I have built-up repetition and contrast within series of photographs on each subject. Complex problems are thrilling. I embrace the technically difficult as it challenges me to produce art that surpasses those challenges. Pushing boundaries, subverting expectations, endlessly and relentlessly searching for beauty and the unseen.The geometry of nature is a huge inspiration to me. I often work with very close crops of the microscopic structures I photograph. This transforms their intrinsic patterns and textures into the abstract, allowing space for the viewer to engage their imagination. I have made explicit the implicit intricacies of chemistry and physics, exposing the detail within common compounds such as water, glass, sugar, spices, flowers, and light. My explorations have revealed flowers within droplets of magnetised fluid, colourful ice shelves within sugar crystals, and more. I am driven by the opportunity to make images that can be shared. I want to give people the opportunity to see the beauty in elemental structures of nature they would not otherwise see without my photographic lens.