Isaac Newton was the first to understand that white light consists of a mix of light rays, each with a distinct color. Passing a beam of sunlight through a prism he split it into a spectrum of seven colors. He published his findings in 1672.
This project started with a glass of water. My friend Murray noticed sunlight passing though a glass of water generated a series of patterns. Knowing my fascination with light, he brought his glass so I could photograph the patterns. The following afternoon as I went to place Murray’s glass I had a Newtonian moment. In his experiments Newton had used a second prism to recompose the colored light back into white. I decided to use Murray’s glass as ‘the second prism’ in the path of colored light from my beveled glass window.
The light generated fascinating patterns both in the glass itself and in its shadow. As the light changed over the next hour so did the patterns. Rotating the glass or changing its location in the paths of prismed light revealed an exciting world of evolving patterns. Over the following three weeks I generated a library of spectral images from eight glasses and four glass bowls. Highlights from that library are presented in this book.
Newton would enjoy such spectral splendor.