Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith

The work of visionary scientist-cum-artist F. Percy Smith’s obsession with capturing the minutiae of nature.

To warm you up for the magical underwater world of Jean Painlevé, here’s a chance to explore the work of another visionary scientist-cum-artist. Percy Smith’s obsession was with capturing the minutiae of nature and he went to amazing lengths to achieve this, creating home-built contraptions from Meccano and gramophone needles and fashioning his own microscopic lenses to get up close and personal.

Released by the British Film Institute, the results are by turns funny, bizarre and lovely, and are here presented in a whole new light thanks to the work of composer Stuart Staples (Tindersticks) and editor David Reeve.