Nikon’s Small World Contest Winners include ASU Faculty

Lomadra longifolia
Lomandra longifolia


Among the top twenty award winning photomicrographs from Nikon’s international "Small World" contest now touring museums throughout the U.S., will be Charles Kazilek’s image of Lomandra longifolia (Spiny-headed mat rush). The Small World contest is considered to be a "leading forum for recognizing the art, proficiency and photographic excellence in photomicrography."

While photomicrography is not garden-variety photography, Kazilek’s inspiration came through an everyday medium: paper. The co-founder of The Paper Project, Kazilek delves into the structure of this ubiquitous substance with the use of a confocal (3-laser) microscope. The resulting image, an interlaced weave of fibrous blues, purples, and greens, placed fourth. His image was selected from the more than 1,700 images submitted from around the globe. The panel of judges included: Sir Harold W. Kroto, a 1996 Nobel laureate; Chistina Scalet, Time Magazine’s photo editor, and J.D. Talasek, the director of the Exhibitions and cultural programs with the National Academy of Sciences.

Charles Kazilek is a member of the School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and has been with Arizona State University since 1985. He is currently the director of technology integration and outreach and the technical director of the William M. Keck Bioimaging Laboratory. He teaches in workshops that focus on scientific data presentation and advanced bioimaging, in addition to his work as an artist. Besides The Paper Project, Kazilek is also the founder of the Ask-a-Biologist web site created for K-12 students, teachers and parents, and conducts related workshops for teachers at the Arizona Science Center in downtown Phoenix.

All 20 winning images can be viewed on an electronic gallery on Nikon’s educational website www.nikonsmallworld.com.

For more details:

Margaret Coulombe, Margaret.Coulombe@asu.edu