Other Work

Being so close to an insect that you can count the hairs on its back is an enormous thrill. To photograph the insect successfully so that at least its head is in focus is a study in patience. The reward is a vision of life beyond the human frame.

There are thousands of pollinating insect species, from the most well-known honeybees to bumblebees, solitary bees, flies, hoverflies, butterflies, moths, beetles and wasps. Beetles are in fact the oldest group of pollinators.

Tragically all are under pressure from several converging threats. Habitat loss, pesticides, climate change, disease and parasites. The critical point is that these pressures don't operate in isolation — they interact and compound each other. A pesticide-weakened bee is far more vulnerable to disease. A habitat-stressed butterfly has less resilience against a late frost. It is the combination that makes the decline so rapid and so difficult to reverse.

To find out more about pollinators, the huge contribution they make to human food security, and how to help them, visit the Natural History Museum website.

Corolla, from the Latin for "small wreath," is the collective term for a flower's petals, forming the second whorl within the calyx.

The stamen, carpel, and corolla constitute the core functional and aesthetic components of flowers, balancing reproductive necessity with intricate structural beauty. These parts work together to ensure pollination, often featuring specialised shapes, vibrant colours, and unique textures evolved to attract specific pollinators. Scent also plays a crucial, often primary, role in insect pollination. John Innes Centre

The German photographer Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) pioneered macrophotography using a camera of his own design with a metre-long accordion-like bellows that connected the lens to the camera. Increasing the distance between the lens and the photographic plate inside the camera made it possible to capture extreme close-ups of his subjects.

My favourite lens for plant photography is a very small and sharp 35mm prime coupled with a 14mm extension tube — same principle as the bellows but only 15mm long. It is lightweight and fast so can be used handheld. Without the extension tube I get context, and with the extension tube fitted I get the intimacy of the stamen and carpel selectively in focus whilst the surrounding corolla is abstracted.

Blossfeldt amassed over 6,000 photographs before bringing his work to public attention in 1928 with his seminal publication, Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature). International Center of Photography

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