At extreme magnification, moth and butterfly wings become dazzling landscapes of color and structure.
At first glance, these images seem almost otherworldly. In reality, they are the wings of moths and butterflies, magnified until individual scales become visible. What our eyes perceive as a single, and sometimes even dull, color is actually a kaleidoscope of microscopic reds, blues and greens.
All the insects Stuttgart-based Thorben Danke photographs are native to Central Europe. By turning his lens on familiar, often overlooked species, he challenges the idea that European insects are visually unremarkable compared to their showier tropical relatives.
The closer we look, the more details emerge. We see ridges, fluted edges, and miniscule hairs, captured in extraordinary focus. The surprise is constant, Danke says. “You can’t plan the beauty of the details because you don’t know that they are there.”
That sense of discovery continues to fascinate Danke, a decade after a chance close-up of a green bottle fly on a garage wall first got him hooked on macrophotography. In revealing this “hidden empire”, he invites us to appreciate the miraculous small lives around us.
Burnet moth, Zygaena ephialtes
Focused on the wonderful world of rewilding, Volume 5 sees us get into the weeds – and go beyond the ferns – with our green-thumbed cover star Zach Galifianakis, walk with wolves in Slovenia, create a wilder world in Denmark, find meaning in fashion, and much, much more.
