52 Award-Winning Photos From Nikon Small World Reveal an Unseen World
Nikon has announced the winners of its 52nd annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. This year’s winning photos celebrate the world’s best and most captivating images captured through a microscope, showing the world in an up-close and unique way.
This year, photographers from 69 countries submitted 1,803 photos for consideration, a large pool of highly specialized, exceptional microscope images. The judges certainly had their work cut out for them picking the best shots.
Ole Bielfeldt’s Grand Prize-Winning Photo Shows an Inkjet Printer Up Close
This year’s first-place prize goes to Ole Bielfeldt, a student and experimental photographer based in Cologne, Germany. Photographers should definitely print their photos, and if they can capture microscopic photos of the process, even better. In fairness, Bielfeldt’s photo shows text being printed, but the principle remains intact.
Bielfeldt used a custom imaging rig he built himself, helping him showcase an everyday process in an entirely new way. This is part of his brand, macrofying, where he focuses on showing everyday objects in unfamiliar ways through photomicroscopy.
Bielfeldt felt that inkjet printing happens so often and so quickly that people don’t necessarily really know what’s going on at a microscopic level. It’s too routine and opaque. But through a microscope camera rig, it’s captivating.
“I think it was super interesting because I didn’t know how it really worked,” the winning photographer says. “It’s like it was magic, and I didn’t understand it, but now I do.”
Bielfeldt says his initial attempts failed because the printhead moved too fast to stay in focus. The droplets were also too fast for his setup.
To solve these problems, the photographer reverse-engineered the printer so that the printhead itself stayed stationary while the paper moved. He worked inside a dark room and used a flash to freeze inkjet drops in mid-air, effectively using the light as his shutter.
“After trying and failing many times to capture the droplets in motion, I thought I would need some expensive equipment,” Bielfeldt explains. “But it turned out I already had everything I needed.”
It’s a clever bit of ingenuity, and per Nikon Small World, emblematic of the competition’s longtime spirit.
“Ole Bielfeldt’s winning image embodies what makes Nikon Small World so powerful: the intersection of microscope imaging, ingenuity, and artistry,” says Eric Flem, senior manager, communications and CRM at Nikon Instruments.
“By using a microscope objective in a different way, he transformed a familiar object into something altogether new and previously unseen. It is a reminder that the microscope is not only a scientific tool but also a creative one, capable of expanding how we see and imagine the world around us,” Flem continues.
Bielfeldt became interested in photomicrography after he found an old microscope in his parents’ attic during the COVID-19 lockdown. He built a tube adapter, attached a camera he borrowed from his dad, and his passion was born.
Like the old-school microscope that started it all, Bielfeldt sticks to tried-and-true techniques like focus stacking. No generative AI here.
Second- and Third-Place Winners
Rounding out the top three are John-Oliver Dunn, Kaelin Wulf, and Rachel Flannery.
Dunn took second place for his close-up photo of a jumping spider (Salticus scenicus) with pollen.
Kalein Wulf and Rachel Flannery together earned third place for their image of neurons in an expanded mouse brain.
The Rest of the Top 20
Additional Winning Photos
The judges recognized 86 photos this year, all of which can be seen on the Nikon Small World website and will be featured in a 2027 full-color calendar. PetaPixel has selected 32 photos from the “Honorable Mentions” and “Images of Distinction” to feature here.
Honorable Mentions
Selected Images of Distinction
Image creditsNikon Small World. All photographers are credited in the individual image captions.
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