The Hidden Beauty of Seeds & Fruits by Levon Biss

That strange looking little pod that you walked by. The spiky seed that dangles from a fall branch. These small moments may seem trivial.

Photographer Levon Biss knows they aren’t trivial, and shows us the magic and hidden beauty that these small pieces of nature offer.

British photographer Levon Biss brings a botanical marvel into sharp focus with his beautiful book The Hidden Beauty of Seeds & Fruits.

Using extreme magnification, he reveals structures that we rarely stop to notice. Hidden worlds of texture, symmetry, and ingenious design.

Take, for instance, the specimen above: a seed cone whose surface resembles an elaborate weave of scales and armor.

Biss’s technique captures every ridge, fissure, and spine in startling clarity, showing nature’s engineering at both its most functional and its most aesthetic.

What might otherwise be dismissed as a simple pod is transformed into something that feels monumental, almost sculptural.

Biss’s practice sits at the intersection of art and science. Each photograph is built from multiple stacked exposures, allowing the entire object, from the finest surface hairs to the deepest recesses, to be perfectly in focus. 

This meticulous process highlights the evolutionary creativity hidden in the plant world: seeds with aerodynamic wings, burrs designed to latch onto fur, shells that crack open under pressure, and cones like this one that seem forged in miniature.

Best known for his Microsculpture project, which revealed insects in breathtaking macro detail, Biss has now turns his lens to carpology, the study of seeds and fruits.

” After spending months researching the carpological collection at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Levon selected just over one hundred striking samples to be featured in this book, The Hidden Beauty of Seeds & Fruits. 

Captioned with scientific text that provides the backstory for each specimen, The Hidden Beauty of Seeds & Fruits is guaranteed to amaze, entertain, and educate.

What becomes clearly apparent through Levon’s botanical images is the mechanical and structural adaptations plants utilise in their bid to reproduce.

Seed dispersal is a crucial process that allows plants to spread their offspring over a wide area, reducing competition and increasing the chances of survival. “

-LevonBiss.com

See more of Biss’ stunning work on his website. The book The Hidden Beauty of Seeds & Fruits: The Botanical Photography of Levon Biss is available for sale here.

Images © Copyright LEVON BISS. Used with permission.