Soul of a LichenMy macro lens lets me into the enchanted world of lichens and the more I look and learn the more fascinating it becomes. I was naive enough to think that it would be easy to photograph a non-moving target, after first specializing in bees and other insects, then in birds. But I had to keep pondering the question of how to represent the beauty of an organism that is so varied and microscopically complex. And has a habit of being in bad light. I am used to getting the eye of my subject in focus to establish intimacy. How does one find the soul a lichen? In the end, the similarity with insects and birds is that when I photograph them I am photographing individuals. This damselfly, this vulture, in this exact moment in time. I am in a relationship with them, even if it is fleeting. Seeing each lichen as an individual (well collective individual), allows me to connect and find my lichen-ness in a time scale that is far from my normal. My experience of myself and the world has changed. |
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