The universe of insects is distant from ours and yet intertwined with it. The closer we look, the more this world unfolds – full of beauty, horror and uniqueness. Contact with it often ends in fatal misunderstandings, and its beauty usually reveals itself only up close.
Inspired by entomological drawings, the ultra-large-format photographs of INSECTAE set out to uncover the geometry and perfection of creatures that live among us but are not always welcome.
The wet plate process brought technical obstacles to this series. The main tool is a beautiful, bulky wooden studio camera, more than 120 years old, whose bellows extend to nearly two metres – only then is it possible to get close enough to the specimen.
The pure silver of the 40x50cm tintypes glows as a result; the shallow depth of field and a magnification of 4:1 preserve the fragile beauty of the insects.
