Cicada Resting

Description

When I work in black-and-white macro photography and lens-based studies I examine the small structures of the natural world. My practice centers on high-resolution images of insects, plants, and other overlooked subjects rendered in grayscale to emphasize form, texture, and line. I am compelled by the architecture of living things — how functional systems produce visual patterns, where utility and ornament overlap. My photographs present those relationships plainly: wing venation becomes rhythm; chitin and leaf surface read as topology. Influences range from scientific illustration and microscopy to mid-century photographers who treated everyday matter as design. I aim to reveal the quiet precision of nonhuman forms and to show how scale can shift perception, turning the familiar into something formally rigorous and unexpectedly complex. Technically, I rely on macro optics, focus stacking, and directional lighting to resolve minute detail. Monochrome conversion and careful tonal control strip color away so structure and contrast drive the image. Field patience and minimal intervention keep subjects legible without staging them into caricature. Final prints are made to retain microtexture and tonal range so the work can be read at both intimate and extended viewing distances. Across my body of work, recurring concerns emerge: pattern versus function, fragility beside resilience, and the ways close observation alters what we consider ordinary. I strive to present photographs that conveys an insistence on looking closely — not to prettify nature, but to present its design with clarity and respect.