So, I had been a photographer for 18 years before I began the Microsculpture Project. And in that time, I had shot global ad campaigns, I had the opportunity to photograph some of my generation's icons, and I was traveling the world. I got to a point in my career that I dreamed of getting to, and yet, for some reason, I still felt a little bit unfulfilled. Despite the extraordinary things I was shooting and experiencing, they'd started to feel a little bit ordinary to me. I was also getting concerned about how disposable photography had started to feel in the digital world, and I really wanted to produce images that had a sense of worth again. And I needed a subject that felt extraordinary.
在开始昆虫微拍项目前 我作为摄影师 已有18个年头 当时,我曾为很多国际品牌拍摄广告 我拥有机会拍下我时代的符号 并环游着世界 我的职业生涯真如我所梦想的 然而,因为某些原因,我仍然不满足 尽管我拍摄和体验的事物如此特别 但他们开始变得平淡 我也开始有些担心 在数字世界中,一次性的摄影将如何生存 我真是很想去生产那种有价值感的照片 我需要一种独特的项目
Sometimes I wish I had the eyes of a child. And by that I mean, I wish I could look at the world in the same as I did when I was a small boy. I think there is a danger, as we get older, that our curiosity becomes slightly muted or dulled by familiarity. And as a visual creator, one of the challenges for me is to present the familiar in a new and engaging way.
有时候,我希望我拥有儿童之眼 这意思是,我希望我看待世界的方式 如同我小时候那般 我感觉随着我们年纪渐长 我门的好奇心开始因为熟悉的东西而变得麻木 而作为视觉创作者,我的一大挑战是 如何以一种新的更具沉浸式的方式去展现熟悉景象
Fortunately for me, though, I've got two great kids who are still curious about the world. Sebastian -- he's still curious about the world, and in 2014, in spring, he brought in a ground beetle from the garden. There was nothing particularly special about this insect -- you know, it was a common species. But he was still curious, and he brought it up to my office, and we decided to look at it under his microscope. He had a little science kit for Christmas. And this is what we saw.
庆幸的是,我有两个孩子 仍然对世界充满好奇 塞巴斯蒂安,他仍然对世界抱有好奇,2014年的春天 他从花园里带回来一只土鳖虫 这昆虫并无特别之处 就是普普通通那种 但他仍然非常好奇 他带到了我的办公室 所以我们决定来看看这只昆虫 用他的显微镜 圣诞节的科学套件礼物 这就是我们那个时候看到的
Now, when I first saw this, it blew me away. Up here -- this is the back of the ground beetle. When I first saw it, it reminded me of a galaxy. And all the time, this had just been outside our window. You know, I was looking for this extraordinary subject, and it took Seb's eyes and curiosity to bring it in to me.
当我第一眼看到时,真是出乎所料 这里,是土鳖虫的背部 当我第一次见到时,我想到的是银河 一直以来,这就在我们的窗外 而我一直在寻找这种独特的项目 而他通过塞巴的眼睛和好奇带到我面前
So I decided to photograph it for him, and this is what I produced. I basically asked myself two simple questions. The first one: Could I take all my knowledge and skill of photographic lighting and take that onto a subject that's five millimeters long? But also: Could I keep creative control over that lighting on a subject that size? So I practiced on some other found specimens, and I approached the Oxford University Museum of Natural History to see if I could have access to their collection, to progress the project. And I went up there for a meeting, and I showed them some of the images that I'd been shooting, and they could see the kind of detail I was able to get. I don't think they'd ever really seen anything quite like it before, and from that point forward, they gave me open access to their entire collection and the assistance of Dr. James Hogan, their entomologist.
所以我决定为他拍摄,而这就是我所拍摄的 我大体上问了我自己两个简单的问题 第一个问题是 我能否用我所有关于拍摄和光影的知识和技能 去拍摄这类5毫米的物体 但同时,我能否对这种大小的物体 保持光影的创造性控制 所以我摸索着另外一些发现的样本 并来到牛津大学自然历史博物馆 看能否拍摄他们的收藏 以推进这个项目 我在那跟他们开了个会 并向他们展示我所拍摄的照片 他们看到了我当时所拍摄的细节 我相信他们过去从没有看过这样的细节 从那以后,他们向我开放了 所有的馆藏 并得到了昆虫学家詹姆斯·迪恩博士的协助
Now, over the next two-and-a-half years, I shot 37 insects from their collection. And the way I work is that I essentially split the insect up into multiple sections, and I treat each one of those sections like a small still life. So for example, if I was photographing the eye of the insect, which is normally quite smooth and dome-shaped, then I'd use a light source that is large and soft and diffuse, so I don't get any harsh hot spots on that surface. But once my attention turns over to a hairy leg, that lighting setup will change completely. And so I make that one tiny section look as beautiful as I possibly can, and I work my way across the insect until I have about 20 or 25 different sections.
在过去两年半的时间里 我从他们的馆藏中拍摄了37中昆虫 我拍摄的方式 基本上是把昆虫分为不同的部分 并将这一个个部分视为小静生物进行拍摄 例如,我拍摄了昆虫的眼睛 它们通常圆润光滑 我就使用宽大,柔和,扩散的光源 这样就不会在表面留下任何热燥点 但一旦转向毛茸茸的腿时 光影的设定就完全不同了 我让每一个细节都尽可能地漂亮 于是我绕着昆虫开始了工作 直至拍完20或25个不同的细节部分
The issue with photography at high magnification is that there is inherently a very shallow depth of field. So to get around that, what I do is, I put my camera on a rail that I can automate to move 10 microns in between each shot. That's about one-seventh the width of a human hair. And then that provides me with a deep stack of images. Each has a tiny sliver of focus all the way through. And I can squash that down to produce one image that is fully focused from front to back. So essentially, that gives me 25 sections that are fully focused and beautifully lit. Now, each one of my images is made up of anywhere between 8- and 10,000 separate shots. They take about three-and-a-half weeks to create, and the file sizes on average are about four gigabytes. So I've got plenty of information to play with when I'm printing. And the prints at the exhibition are around the three-meter mark. In fact, I had a show in Milan two weeks ago, and we had some prints there that were nine meters long.
当时有个问题是高放大比例的摄影照片 天生具有非常浅的景深 为了解决这个问题,我的做法是 我把镜头放在摄影轨道上 这样我就可以在每一次拍摄时移动10微米 这相当于人类头发1/7大小 这样我就得到了深栈的图像 每一处都是一个个小的聚焦点 所以我可以把它们 去合成一张从前到后都是完全聚焦的照片 所以实际上,我拍了25个全面聚焦的部分 漂亮地发光 现在,我的每一张照片 由8-10千张独立的拍摄组成 需要历时3.5周的时间去创作 文件的平均大小有4GB 所以我打印的时候拥有丰富的信息 展览的印刷作品大约3米 实际上,两周以前,我在米兰有个展览 那边有一些印刷作品长达9米
But, you know, I realize that these images still have to work in the digital world. There's no point in me putting all my blood, sweat and tears into these pictures if they're only going to be showing 500 pixels on a screen. So with the help of Rob Chandler and Will Cookson, we developed a website that enables the viewer to immerse themselves into the full four-gigabyte files, and they can explore all that microscopic detail. So if you have the time, and I encourage you, please visit microsculpture.net and go and have a play. It's good fun.
但你知道, 我意识到 这些照片同样应该展示在数字世界中 我没有必要把我的心血和汗水 倾注在这些照片中 如果他们只是在500像素的屏幕中展示 在罗伯钱德勒和威尔库克森的帮助下 我们开发了个网站 可以让观看者沉浸式地体验 高达4GB的版本 他们可以探索显微镜级别的细节 如果大伙有空,我建议你们 访问microsculpture.net 去使用和体验 非常有趣
I first showed the work at Oxford, and since then, it's moved on to the Middle East. It's now back in Europe and goes to Copenhagen this month. And the feedback has been great. You know, I get emails, actually, from all over the world -- from teachers, at the moment, who are using the website in school. The kids are using them on the tablet. They're zooming into the pictures and using it for art class, biology class. And that's not something I planned. That's just a beautiful offshoot of the project. In fact, one of the things I like to do at the exhibitions is actually look at the kiddies' reactions. And, you know, standing in front of a three-meter insect, they could have been horrified. But they're not. They look in wonder. This little chap here, he stood there for five minutes, motionless.
我最早是在牛津展示我的作品 那之后,就去了中东 现在又回到欧洲,这个月在哥本哈根(丹麦首都) 反馈非常令人振奋 我收到了来自全球各地的邮件 有在学校中使用网页访问的老师 在平板上使用的小孩 他们缩放着照片 用在艺术,生物课上 这些都超乎我的计划 这些都是这个项目的美丽衍生 实际上,我在展览中喜欢做的一件事是 看着孩子们的反应 你知道,站在三米高的昆虫面前 他们可能会被吓坏 但实际上,他们并没有,他们好奇地打量着 这个小伙子,他就这样站在五分钟,一动不动的
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And at the end of the day, actually, at the end of the day at the exhibitions, we have to wipe down the lower third of the big prints -- (Laughter) just to remove all those sticky handprints, because all they want to do is touch those big bugs.
展览结束那天 我不得不擦拭这些大画展的下面1/3部分 (笑声) 以清除这些手印 因为他们都想触摸这些大虫子
I do want to leave you with one final image, if that's OK. This has to do with Charles Darwin. One of the recent images that I photographed was this one here. I'm talking about the creature in the box, not my cat. And this is a shield bug that Charles Darwin brought back from Australia on the HMS Beagle in 1836. And when I got it home, I stood in my kitchen and stared at it for about 20 minutes. I couldn't believe I was in possession of this beautiful creature. And at that moment, I kind of realized that this validated the project for me. The fact that the museum was willing to risk me playing with this kind of showed me that my images had worth -- you know, they weren't disposable.
我真想给你们留下最后一张照片,如果可以的化 这与查尔斯达尔文有关 我最近的拍摄的照片之一 是这一张 我说的是盒子里面的生物,不是我的猫 这是一只盾虫 是1836年达尔文乘坐小猎犬号 从澳洲带回来的盾虫 那时当我回到家时 我站在厨房,看了它又20分钟 难以置信我会拥有如此漂亮的生物 而那一刻,我多少意识到 这验证了我的项目 事实上博物馆冒得被我折腾这些的风险 多少向我表明了我的照片一定值得 并不会让他们失望
That's the image that I produced. I often wonder, still, when I look at this: What would Charles Darwin make of these images? Do you think he'd like his picture of his shield bug? I hope so.
这就是我的作品 看着这些,我常常好奇 达尔文会如何看待这些图片 你觉得他会喜欢盾虫这种照片吗?我希望如何
So --
所以
(Applause)
(掌声)
You know, I think it's strange in a way. I'm a visual person, I'm a creative person, but I still needed the eyes of a child to find my extraordinary subject. That's the way it was. So all I can say is, thank you very much, Sebastian; I am very, very grateful.
这多少有点奇怪 我是一个视觉人员,我是一个创意人员 但我仍然需要儿童的眼睛去寻找我的独特项目 事情就是如此 所以我只能说,非常谢谢,塞巴斯蒂安 非常,非常感激
Thank you.
谢谢
(Applause)
(掌声)