These twelve photographs are part of the more than 5,000 taken by the American Wilson Alwyn Bentley. In 1885, at the age of 20, he produced the world’s first photograph of a snowflake. Combining a camera with a microscope, he followed an unchanging protocol that involved, for example, a broom splint, a turkey feather, and a focusing system of ropes and pulleys. Celebrated by the magazines, jewelers, and textile manufacturers of his time, and also a pioneer in photographing raindrops, Bentley wrote: “Every snow crystal is a masterpiece, and no design is ever repeated. When a snowflake melts, that design is lost forever.”