Nature Photography Science
#geology #László Kupi #minerals #nature #rocks
Remarkable Colors, Textures, and Combinations Characterize László Kupi’s Vibrant Portraits of Minerals
Cobalt-bearing aragonite from Baiyangping ore field, Yunnan, China. Courtesy of Mond Chang. All images © László Kupi, shared with permission
One of the things that makes minerals and crystals so compelling is that we just don’t see them very often. While some like salt, quartz, and mica form on the earth’s surface, others are found deep within the planet’s crust. From prismatic pillars to cerulean tufts to lime-green nodes, the inorganic growths take myriad forms.
Budapest-based ore geologist and photographer László Kupi has been fascinated by the crystalline structures since childhood, spurring a passion for documenting their remarkable diversity. His portraits span a veritably endless assortment of shapes, sizes, colors, and combinations, capturing astonishing interactions between a wide variety of specimens.
The subjects of Kupi’s images form in a range of environments and conditions. Some emerge through a hydrothermal process in which hot water melts the minerals, seeping through fractures in porous rock and re-collecting in pockets and veins. Others emerge from metamorphic reactions in the earth’s crust, solidify from molten rock, or change through weathering and erosion.
Kupi documents minerals in his own collection along with those found in institutions and natural history archives around the world. Explore more on his website, and follow Instagram for updates.
Left: Vanadinite from Mibladen, Morocco. Courtesy of Mond Chang. Right: Multi-colored Elbaite from Barra de Salinas, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Courtesy of GetGemstoned
Rutile, Hematite with Quartz from Novo Horizonte, Bahia, Brazil. Courtesy of Stephanie Joplin Tabbah
Rhodochrosite, Fluorite from Sweet Home Mine, Colorado. Courtesy of Kyle Kevorkian
Left: Scapter Amethyst from Goboboseb, Namibia. Courtesy of Creighton Beery. Right: Cyanotrichite from Quiglong, Guizhou, China. Courtesy of GetGemstoned
Pyromorphite from the Daoping Mine, Guanxi, China. Courtesy of Mond Chang
Blue cap tourmaline from Dara-i-Pech, Kunar, Afghanistan. Courtesy of Green Mountain Minerals
Left: Hematite from Cavradi, Switzerland. Private collection. Right: Gold on Quartz from the Mockingbird Mine, California. Courtesy of Kyle Kevorkian
Cobaltoan Calcite from Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Courtesy of Christophe Gobin Minerals
#geology #László Kupi #minerals #nature #rocks
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