FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Entertainment

See the Rugged Faces of the Seeds That Could Save the World

Before they head to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Kaitlyn Schwalje gives tiny seeds their macro moments.
Seed of Beta vulgaris (beet) © Kaitlyn Schwalje 2014

On a quiet island in Norway, a cavernous structure protruding out of permafrost holds over 770,000 seeds of plants from all over the globe in case of a sudden “doomsday” scenario or plant-pocalypse. This is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the spark for artist Kaitlyn Schwalje’s macrophotography project, Seeds Under Microscope.

“The series aims to give a face to these mostly faceless collections, elevating the beauty of the seeds to more closely match the life sustaining powers they contain,” Schwalje tells The Creators Project. To create it, she captured images of the surfaces of carrot, leek, and beet seeds from the Nordic Gene Research Center seed bank in Sweden, using an environmental scanning electron microscope in high vacuum. Afterwards, her tiny subjects were taken on the trek to their cold new home in the Vault.

Advertisement

“I work on the premise that a single captivating image can be enough to make an otherwise inaccessible and dense topic exciting. It’s a form of packaging,” explains Schwalje, whose background is in physics and design. “Behind the image of a seed is a rich and timeless story about agricultural futures and climate change; a story spanning continents and centuries. Any level of investigation uncovers new knowledge.”

Below, examine the alien landscapes Schwalje gleans from seed surfaces:

Seed of Allium Porrum (leek) © Kaitlyn Schwalje 2014

Seed of Daucus carota (wild carrot), © Kaitlyn Schwalje 2014

Flower of Allium Porrum (leek) © Kaitlyn Schwalje 2014

Related:

Macrophotography Preserves the Beauty of Gemstones and Spider Fur

Rat Brains and Fly Larvae Win Microscope Photography Competition

Witness The Macro Beauty Of Chemical Reactions In Stunning 4K

Bask In The Eerie Simplicity Of Microscopic Worlds With 'Confluence'