Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Bugs.


I was immediately drawn to the image for Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo. Although at the time I wasn't sure if it would be a documentary or a monster movie or perhaps something similar to 'Kiss of the Spider Woman'. But documentary it is, highlighting Japan's interest in Insects.

I find that our western attitude to things that creep and crawl is far from positive. I'm sure that very few children I know would be saving up for a beetle of any kind.
But insects do possess an alien beauty. Different from us in almost every way possible they have inspired the horrific and the exquisite.

Christopher Marley photographs insects and such a way that they appear as beautiful jewels. In mosaic photos such as the one above, they are not ordered by taxonomy, but arranged only for aesthetics.
In the single photos such as the one above, the beetles look more like mounted specimens. And indeed, specimens of this Macrodontia Cervicorniscan grow very large and collect a great deal of money.
I think I prefer the idea of a private collector buying one of Morley's photos than an actual specimen.

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