This Portrait of Stephen Fry Was Made From His Own Bacteria

This image of actor/writer Stephen Fry may look like just another Instagram filter run amok, but it’s actually the result of a pretty unique science-based art project.

As seen on The Big Bang Fair UK’s website, the portrait is “made from the subjects’ own cells – and have been grown by Zachary Copfer,
an American microbiologist and photographer.”

To make the Pop Art style images, Zachary cleverly exposes areas of a
petri dish to radiation in order to stimulate the bacteria’s growth.
This creates a photograph grown entirely from the bacteria itself.
Zachary is the only person in the world practicing this art, which he
terms “Bacteriography”. This is the first time his work has been brought
to the UK.

Watch the image come to life here:

The project also features a variety of other celebrities as well, using their own cells to create similar images. You can see Copfer explain his process in detail here.