Bioartist Uses Unusual Medium to Recreate Famous Photographs

Zachary Copfer might not be unique in all the images he replicates, but his medium for choosing to reproduce famous photos and other works of art is certainly novel. Copfer's work is what he calls bacteriography.

The "scientist who went rouge and became a bioartist" grows the images out of bacteria.

Einstein (Photo: Zachary Copfen via Kickstarter)

"Ultimately, I strive to create art that allows me to share my wonderment of the process of scientific study and my sense of awe of the discoveries that have been made using this process with others," Copfer wrote on his Kickstarter page.

The bioartist, who created the unique process, started a page on the crowd-funding website to gain resources to continue his work and launch an exhibition. He plans to showcase his work in September at ArtPrize, a city-wide art show in Grand Rapids, Mich., which has been gaining popularity in recent years.

"Having just finished graduate school some of the resources that are required to make bacteriographs are no longer at my disposal," the man with a masters in fine arts who left a pharmaceutical company to follow his passion wrote.

Darwin (Photo: Zachary Copfen via Kickstarter)

Watch one of Copfer's bacteriographs grow in this time-lapsed video, a process he wrote on Kickstarter that could take about  a month:

You might be wondering how the bacteriographs would be maintained for a longer period of time -- safely. He said on the site that he also developed a method to preserve his work as well.

Albasaurus: The world's First DayGlo Veleocirabbit (Photo: Zachary Copfen via Kickstarter)

Watch this short video about Copfer's bacteriographs:

With 18 days left to reach his $8,000 goal to continue producing such works of art, Copfer currently has more than 100 backers for a total of more than $2,300.

Check out more of Copfer's art on his Kickstarter site here or his website here.

(H/T: SlashGear)