Every Grain of Sand

Photos © Dr. Gary Greenberg

"In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand."
– Bob Dylan

That couplet has long struck me as among the most heartfelt and poetic ones in Dylan's entire oeuvre. But I never thought it would make a great lead-in for a photo book report.

A bit of background: Recently I posted a Web story on a book called The Art of the Snowflake, by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht. That book features mesmerizing images of snow crystals, a photographic subject rarely explored since Wilson Bentley's pioneering snowflake images back in the late 1800s. Seizing on one aspect of Libbrecht's project, I titled the piece "No Two Alike?"

"People make a lot more out of that saying than they ought to, you know," Libbrecht replied when asked if every snowflake was unique. "No two grains of sand are exactly alike either, but nobody really cares about that." Later, I joked with Libbrecht about the possibility of him doing a book on sand. "People have done this with sand," he said.

He's right. The day after the story was posted, I got a note from Libbrecht's publisher: "This spring, Voyageur Press will publish a new book that will do for sand what Ken Libbrecht’s photographs did for snow," wrote marketing rep Maurrie Salenger.  I just received the new title, A Grain of Sand: Nature’s Secret Wonder, by Dr. Gary Greenberg ($20, voyageurpress.com). And this book, too, is a revealing, iridescent study in microphotography and nature, drawing equally from science and art.

"My passion is to erase the line between science and art. Both are valuable ways to explore nature," Greenberg explains. "Art will lead the way in conveying science to the consciousness of twenty-first-century culture." The visual variety and technical details of Greenberg's sand project can be seen at sandgrains.com.

He says this exploration began in 2001 after his brother sent him a film can full of sand from Maui in an attempt to prompt a brotherly visit there. "I put the sand under the microscope, wondering what it looked like," he recalls. "I was expecting to see a bunch of tiny brown rocks. But, wow, was I surprised!"

Instead, Greenberg found a multitude of "spectacular colors, shapes, and textures and all kinds of wonderful remnants of volcanic rock mixed with bits of dead biological stuff, very beautiful to behold," he says. The discovery lead to his ongoing exploration of sands from beaches around the world and its many components. (His montage above right of Maui sand was made from 27 images put together in Photoshop.)

Though these detailed images and descriptions may not be for everyone, they offer endless exploration for the geologically curious. Like the snowflake books, this one will likely be a reader for my 6-six-year-old daughter and me. Among the explained phenomena are star-shaped forams, or microscopic shells, from island sand in Okinawa, Japan (below left); tiny shell fragments that have broken off and become grains of sand (middle), and glasslike needles that are actually sponge spicules, or internal skeletons of sponges (right). (That last one will doubtless segue into something about SpongeBob in our house.)

"Understanding how things come together on the microscopic level adds to my appreciation of the ordinary, everyday events of life," Greenberg concludes. "The universe is endlessly beautiful and praiseworthy." What's next in the world of microphotography … salt and pepper?
— Jack Crager

Photos © Dr. Gary Greenberg