Seeds: Time Capsules of Life

Author Biography

Rob Kesseler is an award-winning visual artist and Emeritus Professor of Art, Design & Science at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. For the past 25 years he has worked extensively with botanical scientists and molecular biologists around the world to explore the living world at a microscopic level. Using a range of complex microscopy processes he creates multi-frame composite images of plant organs. Using a sophisticated coordination of hand, eye and intuition, they are modified by the addition of many subtle layers of colour to create intense large format photographs that captivate the eye and extend the traditions of botanical art into a contemporary field. Collaborators include The Jodrell Laboratory Kew, The John Innes Centre, Norwich, and the Max Planck Institute, Germany. He works from studios in London and Corfu and exhibits and lectures internationally. In 2010 he was Year of Biodiversity Fellow at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal. 2014 winner of the RMS Scientific Imaging Competition and in 2022 he was awarded 1st Prize, Botanic Garden Rome for images of seeds from the Arts & Science Synergy Foundation. EU Horizon 2020 Programme. Rob Kesseler is a Fellow of the Linnean Society and Ambassador for Royal Microscopical Society. Wolfgang Stuppy is an internationally recognised seed specialist. He began his career in plant conservation upon joining the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1999. In 2002, he transitioned to Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst, dedicating 15 years to the meticulous study of seeds from all over the world. It was during this time that Dr. Stuppy acquired a wealth of expertise in the rare discipline of seed morphology that made him a world-specialist in this field. Trained in Germany, he holds a doctorate in comparative seed morphology and anatomy. Presently, Dr. Stuppy is the curator of the Botanic Garden at Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany.