As far as artistic methods go, it’s certainly creative. A photographer, and former microbiologist, has worked out how to make portraits by growing strategically placed bacteria cultures.
Zachary Copfer developed the technique, which he dubs ‘bacteriography’, using photographs of famous faces such as Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and telescopic images of the Milky Way.
It works by taking a bacteria such as E.coli, turning it into a fluorescent protein and spreading it across a plate.
A negative of the photograph is then layered on top of the plate and exposed to radiation with the bacteria growing up in strategic places to bring out the image. It is then coated in acrylic and resin.