Levon Biss: Mind-blowing, magnified portraits of insects
Levon Biss: Atemberaubende Großaufnahmen von Insekten
With his "Microsculpture" series, Levon Biss photographs the incredible details of insects. Full bio
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Mikroskulptur-Projekt anfing.
für globale Werbekampagnen,
I had shot global ad campaigns,
some of my generation's icons,
meiner Generation ablichten
that I dreamed of getting to,
von dem ich immer geträumt hatte,
I still felt a little bit unfulfilled.
nicht ganz erfüllt.
I was shooting and experiencing,
die ich fotografierte und erlebte,
a little bit ordinary to me.
had started to feel in the digital world,
in unserer digitalen Welt wurden.
that had a sense of worth again.
die wieder einen Wert hatten.
that felt extraordinary.
die Augen eines Kindes.
I had the eyes of a child.
I wish I could look at the world
when I was a small boy.
as we get older,
slightly muted or dulled by familiarity.
und durch Gewohnheiten getrübt wird.
one of the challenges for me
in a new and engaging way.
aufregende Art zu präsentieren.
I've got two great kids
about the world, and in 2014, in spring,
einen Laufkäfer aus dem Garten ins Haus.
from the garden.
about this insect --
under his microscope.
it blew me away.
of the ground beetle.
it reminded me of a galaxy.
been outside our window.
direkt vor unserem Fenster.
for this extraordinary subject,
besonderen Objekt gesucht,
to bring it in to me.
und Neugierde, um es zu finden.
and this is what I produced.
und das kam dabei heraus.
two simple questions.
zwei simple Fragen.
für Beleuchtung kombinieren
of photographic lighting
that's five millimeters long?
creative control over that lighting
kreativ kontrollieren,
on some other found specimens,
Museum of Natural History
Museum für Naturkunde,
to their collection,
that I'd been shooting,
meiner Bilder zeigte,
the kind of detail I was able to get.
die Aufnahmen waren.
noch nie zuvor gesehen.
anything quite like it before,
auf ihre gesamte Sammlung
they gave me open access
Dr. James Hogan.
their entomologist.
aus ihrer Sammlung.
up into multiple sections,
in mehrere Bereiche auf
like a small still life.
wie ein kleines Stillleben.
the eye of the insect,
des Insekts fotografiere,
and dome-shaped,
und kuppelartig geformt ist,
that is large and soft and diffuse,
weiche, diffuse Lichtquelle,
on that surface.
auf der Oberfläche zu vermeiden.
turns over to a hairy leg,
will change completely.
look as beautiful as I possibly can,
möglichst schön darstellen
different sections.
verschiedene Bereiche habe.
at high magnification
enormen Vergrößerungen ist,
a very shallow depth of field.
die ich so automatisieren kann,
to move 10 microns in between each shot.
zwischen den Aufnahmen bewegt.
of a human hair.
eines menschlichen Haars.
with a deep stack of images.
scharfen Bereich hat.
all the way through.
zu einem einzigen Bild,
that is fully focused from front to back.
25 sections that are fully focused
und schön beleuchtet sind.
8-10.000 einzelnen Aufnahmen.
between 8- and 10,000 separate shots.
weeks to create,
etwa dreieinhalb Wochen
are about four gigabytes.
wenn ich sie ausdrucke.
to play with when I'm printing.
are around the three-meter mark.
sind etwa drei Meter hoch.
in Milan two weeks ago,
in Mailand ausgestellt habe,
that were nine meters long.
auch digital funktionieren.
in the digital world.
in die Bilder zu stecken,
all my blood, sweat and tears
mit 500 Pixel angesehen werden.
500 pixels on a screen.
and Will Cookson,
und Will Cookson
to immerse themselves
vier Gigabyte großen Bilder eintauchen
erforschen können.
all that microscopic detail.
and I encourage you,
microsculpture.net zu besuchen.
zuerst in Oxford gezeigt,
to the Middle East.
and goes to Copenhagen this month.
und bald in Kopenhagen.
from all over the world --
aus der ganzen Welt --
who are using the website in school.
in Schulen benutzen.
sie vergrößern die Bilder,
of the project.
I like to do at the exhibitions
die Reaktionen der Kinder.
the kiddies' reactions.
vor den drei Meter großen Insekten haben.
in front of a three-meter insect,
fünf Minuten lang da.
for five minutes, motionless.
at the end of the day at the exhibitions,
der großen Drucke säubern --
the lower third of the big prints --
all those sticky handprints,
die großen Käfer an.
is touch those big bugs.
with one final image, if that's OK.
that I photographed
in the box, not my cat.
brought back from Australia
aus Australien mitbrachte.
in der Küche und starrte sie an.
and stared at it for about 20 minutes.
of this beautiful creature.
dass ich diese schöne Kreatur hielt.
was willing to risk me playing with this
that my images had worth --
when I look at this:
diese Bildern finden?
make of these images?
von seiner Baumwanze gefallen?
of his shield bug? I hope so.
I'm a creative person,
um mein besonderes Objekt zu finden.
to find my extraordinary subject.
thank you very much, Sebastian;
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Levon Biss - PhotographerWith his "Microsculpture" series, Levon Biss photographs the incredible details of insects.
Why you should listen
Levon Biss is a British photographer who works across many genres, including reportage, sport and portraiture. His passion for nature and photography have come together to create Microsculpture. For the project, a unique photographic process composites thousands of images using multiple lighting setups to create the final insect portraits. Each specimen was mounted on an adapted microscope stage, allowing close control over the position of the specimen in front of the camera lens. Most insects were photographed in about 30 sections, each section lit differently with strobe lights to accentuate the microsculpture of that particular area of the body. Each insect portrait is created from more than 8,000 separate images. In between his insect projects, Biss continues to photograph humans.
Levon Biss | Speaker | TED.com