Microscopic Photography - Garnet Schist

Kamen Engel is a Christchurch-based geologist and photographer. He captures these beautiful images by photographing paper-thin slices of rock through a microscope, revealing a hidden world of minerals. The final product is actually composed of many (often hundreds) of smaller images seamlessly stitched together to produce a kaleidoscopic glimpse into what our eyes can't normally see. 

In a schist such as this one, pressures deep within the Earth cause the crystals to be compressed into layers. However, in this rock, a large garnet crystal has got caught up amongst the smaller crystals, causing them to bend around it. 

• A4 unframed photographic print