Ben Dobson read Natural Sciences at King's College and graduated in 1995. After a career in software engineering, he switched to science and teaching computing. He now teaches at Chesterton Community College, Cambridge. Ben is also microscope artist and was recently invited by the art magazine Aesthetica to be included in their Artists' Directory, the link to which can be found below.
Ben’s work is concerned with perspective, texture, colour and light. He seeks a hidden beauty within animals, plants and minerals. He uses reflected and transmitted light, often polarised, to illuminate mineral, vegetable and animal matter, which he carefully prepares for microscope and camera.
The artist is co-organising, and exhibiting in the first Cambridge SciArt Exhibition at the Cavendish Laboratories as part of Science Week (March 19th - 25th 2018). He has also been invited by Gavin Broad, the Curator of Insects at the National History Museum, to visit his collection with a view to photographing some of his specimens. Ben writes:
"In the long run I would like to become more established as an artist and possibly set up an outreach microscope club that could combine both art and science. In Victorian times microscopy was a huge hobby with over 3000 people making a living preparing slides for richer Victorians. I would like to see microscopy become a popular hobby again and believe it is possible and that this could start in Cambridge."
You can see his work following the link below. For more information please contact Ben at: dobson@themicroscopeman.com
