15th December 2011 - Press release announcing the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle
Finding Higgs Boson - Where My Plant Pot Was (June 2009)

This photograph shows the marks left behind after moving a plant pot. The image describes the effects of gravity; the circle created by the weight of the pot, the spinning motion that created the pot, and the random dispersion of particles as they hit the ground. Visually this image could be seen as sub-atomic particles orbiting a nucleus, or at the other end of the scale, a planetary system caught in space.

As a successful graduate of Edinburgh's Napier University, and in an effort to inspire current graduates, Michael was invited to show his work as part of the 2012 BA Photographic Studies degree show. This image, along with three others that Michael cites as being significant in the development of his commercial and creative direction were selected for the exhibition. Robin Gillanders, Reader in Photography at Napier University, commented:

"the very mundane action of moving a plant pot has been related to the complex theorem of 'Higgs Boson'. The addition of the title lifts the picture conceptually from simply a formal composition to another level altogether. It is a photograph of marks left behind after moving a plant pot, but it is about the action of gravity".


16th December 2012
On a recent journey through time and space (aka a bike ride) I stopped at the cafe in the Jodrell Bank Observatory for a bacon sandwich, here I came across these remarkable images of a planetary system caught in space:

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