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in 1917 the weather bureau’s journal printed, in english, a berlin meteorologist’s line on wilson bentley’s snow crystals: some unfortunately much retouched. in 1918 bentley answered in the same journal, with his own pictures before and after.

left to
the reader.

01 · no. 890, the film cut away

see his before and after: slide, or tap the picture

the same crystal, printed twice: the original, untouched, as it came from the negative, and after he cut the film of the negative away round it, what he called the blocking out method: although exceedingly tedious, it has proved to be an ideal method.

he wrote that none of the fineness of detail was lost, and also that whatever microscopic exactness of outline is lost thereby is made up manyfold by the greater naturalness and sharpness of outline and enhanced beauty of the picture.

02 · no. 2330, retouched

in the original, a small crystal lies on its upper left petal; after, it is gone. he wrote: the tiny crystal attached to its face could not be removed. this specimen is simply marvelous as regards perfect symmetry and beauty of interior. special efforts were therefore made to retouch out the image of the tiny ‘germ crystal,’ and with some degree of success.

it is one of two crystals he printed retouched, in the same reply.

03 · no. 2681, half and half

snow crystal no. 2681, a six-armed star with feathered arms, printed by bentley with the ground cut away to black on the left half only; on the right half the ground is left grey

one crystal he printed both ways at once. photographed on christmas day, 1916, by his notebook, and printed with half the film surrounding the snow crystal image removed: the left half black, the right half as it was.

of no. 2330 and the other, he wrote: these last examples doubtless come under dr. hellmann’s description of being ‘unfortunately greatly retouched.’ (his wording: the english of 1917 has much retouched.) then:

“the verdict as to whether retouching in such cases is justified or not is left to the reader.”

w. a. bentley, monthly weather review, august 1918

wilson bentley photographed snow crystals through a microscope in a cold room of his farmhouse at jericho, vermont, from the winter of 1884–85; by 1918 he had 3,000 of them. a crystal is clear and takes the tint of whatever is behind it, so for the more beautiful ones he cut the film of the negative away round the crystal with the point of a penknife, and printed them white on black.

in 1915, in berlin, gustav hellmann, the director of the prussian meteorological institute, wrote a classification of rain, snow and hail. in the english that the weather bureau’s monthly weather review printed in january 1917, it mentions bentley once, in brackets: very numerous, but some unfortunately much retouched.

bentley answered in the same journal in august 1918, on two pages and two plates of his pictures. he wrote that he fully appreciates dr. hellmann’s eminent services to meteorology, and that a true scientist wishes above all things to have his photographs “as true to nature” as possible; and if retouching will help in this respect, then is it fully justified. he had kept an untouched image of most of them: about 1,500 original negatives left unchanged, and about 1,000 positives on glass, made before the film was cut away.

prints that go with it

radiolariathe microscope’s symmetry, on blackno. 3, radiolariacyanotype branch“white upon a dark ground”no. 333, cyanotype branch