Mitch Payne’s The Elements
Abstract photography of atomic properties
The periodic table, as designed by Dmitri Mendeleev, is both a shockingly simple and instantly informative classification of every element that we have either discovered or created. Elements with similar atomic properties are grouped in columns called groups, and by increasing atomic number in rows called periods. Beyond the group, we can also create families of closely related elements.We simultaneously know a bit about their chemistry and their organization via a simple grid, a layout that has persisted as an adaptable and sublime stroke of genius.
Mitch Payne is a London photographer, and in this work he interprets some of the chemical properties of those families in abstract photography. The sterile and nonreactive noble gases (bottom right), the soft but conductive post-transition metals (bottom left), or the luminescent and excitable lanthanides (top).
Check out the full beautiful gallery at Mitch Payne’s site.
