These Opalescent Photos Are Beautiful Science Experiments

Oil, water, and household chemicals mix in these mesmerizing images.

December 2, 2016, 3:15pm

Davy Evans. Streams. All images courtesy the artist

Though they look digitally manipulated, Davy Evans fluid, mind-bending photos are completely analog, created by the reactions of chemicals in water. His trio of amorphous macro photography series, Streams, Fryars, and/////, capture the subtleties found in the natural world and sucks the viewer into a synesthesia oasis.

Evans, a Brighton-based artist and designer, creates ethereal abstract imagery by fusing analog and digital techniques. He’s inspired by colors, forms, and distortions found in science and experiments with petri dish photography methods to create a hypnagogic world. Inspired by 70s sci-fi illustrations, Streams is based on the idea that consciousness can be described as a continuous flow. “I wanted to create something which could loosely visualize this idea, focusing heavily on vibrant flowing lines and abstract imagery inspired by surrealist art,” Evans tells The Creators Project.

Davy Evans, Streams

Created using a similar photographic process, Fryars series is inspired by life forms and textures from the ocean, especially the abyssal deep sea zone. In contrast to Streams, these images were created with little-to-no digital manipulation or enhancement. “This came from a lot of experimenting without knowing what the final outcome would be, which threw up some interesting results,” Evans says.

The concept for ///// is based on the ever-increasing demand for oil in modern society. By mixing liquids with a high oil content with household chemicals, Evans captures the natural resource's seductive, dark nature.

Davy Evans, Fryars

Fascinatingly, Evans' science experiments in the name of photography are often no bigger than a couple of inches in size. His resulting photos masterfully capture a distorted sense of scale and makes the alien, abstract imagery look bigger than it actually is.