Which photographer captured over 5,000 images of snowflakes in his lifetime?

The photographer who captured over 5,000 images of snowflakes is Wilson Alwyn 'Snowflake' Bentley (1865-1931). He is one of the first known photographers of snowflakes, perfecting the process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that the image could be captured before it either melted or sublimated (transitioned into a substance, in this case water). His work was known as snow crystals' photography.

Bentley was born in Jericho, Vermont, one of the US states located in the northeastern part of the country. Kenneth Libbrecht, a professor of physics and department chairman at the California Institute of Technology, states, "he (Bentley) did it so well that hardly anybody bothered to photograph snowflakes for almost 100 years.

Bentley first became interested in snow crystals as a teenager on his family farm. "Always, right from the beginning it was the snowflakes that fasinated me most", he remembered. He further poetically described snowflakes as "tiny miracles of beauty" and snow crystals as "ice flowers". Despite these poetic descriptions, Bentley brought an empirical method to his work. His technique included capturing the snowflake on a blackboard and then quickly transferring it to a microscope slide.

He died of pneumonia at his farm just before Christmas on December 23, 1931, after walking home six miles in a blizzard. His book 'Snow Crystals' was published by McGraw-Hill shortly before his death, and is still in print today (2019).