Bevil Templeton-Smith creates striking abstract photographs that reveal hidden worlds of colour and form. His images transform crystallised substances into landscapes that feel both cosmic and intimate, inviting the viewer to lose themselves in unfamiliar terrain.
Using a 1970 microscope, and a modern digital camera, and guided by a fascination with the place where science meets art, Bevil works with light, optics, and patient experimentation to uncover beauty in subjects that are otherwise unseen. Each composition is discovered rather than invented, the result of scanning, refining, and recognising the moment a fragment becomes a finished work.
Characterised by luminous colour and painterly depth, his photographs are often mistaken for paintings. They are, however, entirely real — visual records of physical structures captured at the edge of perception.
Bevil’s work has been exhibited internationally and recognised by the International Photography Awards, where he was named Fine Art Photographer of the Year in 2023. His practice continues to evolve, exploring new ways to bridge scientific inquiry and contemporary fine art photography.
Artworks
The finished artworks (in Looking Back and Looking Forward) are 100% ‘series of one’, unique and individual, with no editions. They are made using Chromaluxe (extremely vibrant and durable dye sublimation infusion onto aluminium sheets). If framed, they are in beautiful bespoke FSC certified sustainable ash frames with visible wood grain. They range in price from £850 to £6000, and are available directly from the artist or from Alveston Fine Art, see their website for the works available there.
About Bevil
Bevil Templeton-Smith lives and works in the UK. He is a photographer (and IT consultant / programmer). He was born in 1971 in London, and has worked in technical fields his entire career.
He is also very interested in technical photography — "Photography of things that are difficult to photograph". He is a member of Molesey Photographic Club, as well as the Quekett Microscopical Club.
About This Website
This website tells the story so far of the progress through my art career. I make my photographs with a lot of effort and sometimes difficult physical processes. Creating thousands of microscope slides with mixtures of crystallised substances, viewing each one with a wonderful 1970 Leitz Orthoplan polarising microscope, and photographing some of these with my modern digital camera, connected via a home built camera to eyepiece adapter - in itself an evolving build process, trying to eke out the last shred of sharpness. It is a very small number of photographs that cross the threshold into becoming one of my artworks. The artworks are wholly individual and unique, like a painting. Some have a few variations (different shots of the same crystal with different parameters), but an actual work will never be reprinted.
This is a personal story, so many of the texts are written in the first person, by design. A personal story, with a personal attachment to the photographs. The finished works are framed in black ash frames, so the website mimics that aesthetic. The works are also sometimes complex, and seeing them side by side (for example on Instagram) produces an overload of colour which reduces impact for them all. As a result, there is no grid view of my work here, only a menu choice, or previous / next. As the artist, I wish for them to be seen in isolation with some time to absorb them. The idea is to slowly work your way through my showcase of works, as you would perhaps in a gallery. Work in ‘Looking Back’ is sold. Work in ‘Looking Forward’ is available - directly from me, and from my gallery - Alveston Fine Art. Work in ‘Current Work’ photographs I have made, but not printed (perhaps they never will be, or perhaps others will). Take it easy, and slow, and I am grateful you visited. I hope you enjoy your time here.