Beweging van bloedlichaampjes gefotografeerd door middel van een Micromotoscoop before 1897

This is "Beweging van bloedlichaampjes gefotografeerd door middel van een Micromotoscoop" a photograph by Robert L. Watkins. What strikes one is the image’s monochromatic palette and serial composition, resembling frames of early cinema. The photograph captures blood corpuscles in motion through a micromotoscope, a pioneering attempt to visualize the unseen. The image consists of a sequence of frames. Each frame contains dark specks against a lighter background, these forms suggesting a dance of particles suspended in motion. Watkins sought to capture life's dynamism at a microscopic level. The photograph’s sequential structure bears similarity to early chronophotography, breaking down movement into discrete moments. This challenges our perception by visualizing processes unseen by the naked eye. It questions fixed perceptions and opens up new ways of thinking about space and perception, turning the invisible into something palpable. In this way, Watkins not only documented but also reconfigured reality through his lens.