Photography offers an escape unlike any other. It allows us to capture moments, create moments, and interpret the worlds we see through a lens. We document, we study, we create art, and for me, this was lifesaving.

In my early twenties, I suffered a huge mental breakdown. It was unexpected, out of control, and hard. I attempted to take my own life. 

I tried the anti depressant tablets but they didn’t really work for me, I needed something that would occupy my thoughts, something that would take up my time and stop me from over thinking. That’s when I picked up a camera.

When I’m looking through the lens, I enter a hidden world not many see, a world of macroscopic wonder, the world of the arthropods. I’m no longer in our world, a world full of social media comparisons, fake news, war, worry, and stress. That doesn’t exist here. This world is so much more different than ours, it’s a world full of colour, romance, detail, life and wonder, bound by no rules, only mother nature.  

Hidden-World

Let me set the picture for you on this one. I begin to roam a meadow half way up a greek mountain, wild thyme hits the senses, long grasses stroke my hands, my eyes constantly darting back and forth looking for subjects. Just a few meters ahead I can see a clearing in the grass, full of wildflowers. As I approach, these flowers began to....fly? I couldn't believe my eyes. These creatures rose up from the flowers, gracefully fluttering up and down as I walked by. I'd never seen any creature like it.

This is Nemoptera sinuata, also known as the Larger Balkan Spoon-winged Lacewing. Truly an extraordinary creature of the hidden world. 

Hidden World #38

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