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

You'd be forgiven if you disregarded this Butterfly as a brown leaf, and I nearly did just that as I left the cafe on one of my excursions. The scalloped edges and cryptic colouring of the wings conceal hibernating adults amongst dead leaves. Truly hidden in it's own world.

This is the Comma Butterfly, and it gets that name from the little white comma mark you can see on the wing. 

I lay in the grass getting this shot as customers pilled in and out of the cafe. This is around 40 images to get the full butterfly in incredible detail. 

Hidden World #43

What is the value?

Details