represent

Rich and strange

Apple Bark Borer Moth, up close

If Prospero had had broadband on his little island, he would have spent hours with this cache of macro photography–more than a thousand shots you can scroll through. The collection offers you a glimpse into the way insects actually look–like visitors from another dimension. I don’t know how much the color here as been enhanced, but the tiny iridescent scales on this moth’s body look to me like shingles from a home in Middle Earth. There is nothing any artist has ever made that can compete with the intricate and strange beauty of nature itself. Imagine if this were a photograph of something someone had fabricated and assembled, and you saw it sitting on the floor inside the white cube of a gallery in Chelsea. I’m not sure anything else would be able to compete. And all you need to do is go to Maryland and pluck one from the bark of an apple tree. Just bring a magnifying glass.