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.
我當攝影師 已經十八年了。 這是在我開始微雕塑計畫之前。 那時我拍過全球的廣告活動, 有機會拍過我那個世代的偶像, 也環遊過世界。 我已達到了夢想要達到的目標, 但不知為何,內心仍感到些許空虛。 儘管我拍攝過、 經歷過許多不凡的事物, 卻開始覺得它們有點平凡了。 我也開始擔心 在數位世界中,人們對於 過目即逝的照片有什麼感受, 我也真的想再創造出 一些有價值感的影像。 我需要感覺不凡的題材。
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.
有時我希望能有孩童的眼睛。 意思是我希望現在還能用 小時候看世界的方式來看世界。 我認為隨著長大,會有一種危機, 熟悉度會讓我們的好奇心 變得有些抑制或遲鈍。 身為視覺創作者,我的挑戰之一, 是用新的、吸引人的方式 來呈現熟悉的東西。
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.
不過,我很幸運有兩個很棒的孩子, 他們仍然對世界感到好奇。 賽巴斯汀仍然對世界感到好奇。 在 2014 年春天, 他從花園裡帶回了一隻步行蟲。 這隻昆蟲沒什麼特別的地方, 是一種常見的品種。 但他仍然感到好奇, 他將這隻蟲帶進我的辦公室, 我們決定用他的顯微鏡來檢視牠。 他在聖誕節時得到了 一小套科學裝備。 這是我們所看到的。
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.
第一次看到這影像時,我好驚艷。 上面這裡-這是步行蟲的背。 初次看到它時,我聯想到銀河。 而這影像其實一直都在我們的窗外。 我當時在尋找不凡的題材, 結果是賽巴斯汀的眼睛和好奇心, 把它帶到我面前。
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.
我決定為他拍這隻蟲, 而這是我拍出的成果。 基本上,我問自己兩個簡單的問題。 第一: 能不能把我對於攝影光線的 所有知識和技巧 用在只有 5mm 長度的題材上? 還有:我能把燈光的創意控制 好好的用在這種尺寸上嗎? 所以我找了一些標本來練習, 我也聯絡了牛津大學 自然歷史博物館, 看能不能讓我用他們的收藏 來進展計畫。 我去那裡開了一場會, 讓他們看些我拍攝的作品, 了解我能追求到的細節。 我想他們未曾看過類似的東西, 從那之後, 他們就開放了所有收藏供我使用, 還讓他們的昆蟲學家 詹姆士霍根博士來協助我。
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.
接下來的兩年半, 我拍攝了他們收藏中的 37 隻昆蟲。 我的做法基本上是 把昆蟲分為幾個部份, 把每一部份都當作 一個小型靜止的生命來看待。 比如,如果我要拍昆蟲的眼睛, 它通常很平滑且是半球形的, 我選用的光源就是 大型、柔和、擴散的光源, 不讓表面上出現任何刺目的熱點。 一旦我的注意力轉向有毛的足部時, 光線的設定就會完全改變。 盡可能讓每一個小部份 都看起來非常美麗, 然後我繼續在昆蟲全身這樣做, 直到我完成 20 或 25 個 不同的部份。
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.
高倍放大的照片有個問題, 就是本質上景深很淺。 為解決這個問題, 我的做法把相機放在軌道上, 在拍攝兩張照片之間 自動移動十微米, 約是人類頭髮寬度的七分之一。 那給了我厚厚一疊的影像。 一路下來的焦距有微少的差距。 我可以把它們壓在一起, 產生一張從前面到後面 完整焦距的影像。 基本上,我有 25 個焦距完整、 燈光漂亮的局部影像。 此時,我的每一張影像 都是大約八千到一萬張照片組成的。 要花三週半的時間才能完成, 平均的檔案大小約是 4GB。 我有很多資訊可以在列印時擺弄。 展覽用的列印成品大約是三公尺長。 事實上,兩週前我在米蘭有場展出, 有些列印出來的展品長達九公尺。
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.
但我了解 這些影像仍需要用在數位世界裡。 如果我投入血、汗和淚水的圖片 只呈現在 500 像素的螢幕上, 實在沒有意義。 所以,在羅勃尚德勒和 威爾庫克森的協助下, 我們開發了一個網站, 讓觀者能夠沉浸到 完整的 4GB 檔案當中, 他們能夠探索所有的顯微鏡細節。 如果你們有時間, 我鼓勵你們造訪 microsculpture.net, 去玩看看。 很有趣。
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.
我最初是在牛津展出, 接著,就開始前進中東。 現在回來歐洲, 這個月在哥本哈根展出。 我得到的回饋都很棒。 我收到來自世界各地的電子郵件, 多半來自在學校 用那個網站的老師們。 孩子們用平板電腦來上網站, 把圖片放大, 用在美術課、生物課。 那不在我的計畫之中, 只是這個計畫的美麗衍生物。 事實上,我喜歡在展覽會場 看孩子們的反應。 他們站在三公尺大的昆蟲前面 很可能會嚇壞。 結果沒有。 他們驚異敬佩地欣賞著。 這個小傢伙一動也不動地 站在那裡足足五分鐘。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
在那天結束時,在展覽那天結束時, 我們得要擦拭大型展品的 下面三分之一那部份。 (笑聲) 擦掉那些黏黏的手印, 因為他們想摸那些大昆蟲。
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.
如果可以的話, 我想給各位看最後一張影像。 這和達爾文有關, 是我近期所拍攝的影像, 就是這張。 我說的是盒子裡的生物, 不是我的貓。 這是樁象(臭蟲), 是達爾文在 1836 年搭小獵犬號 從澳洲帶回來的。 當我回到家, 我站在廚房裡, 盯著牠看約二十分鐘。 我無法相信我擁有 這隻美麗的小生物。 那一刻,我了解到, 牠為我認可了這個計畫。 博物館願意冒險讓我拍攝牠, 某種程度就表示我的影像有價值, 並不是一次即丟的。
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.
這就是我製作的影像。 看著這個影像時,我仍然常會好奇: 達爾文對這些影像會有什麼看法? 你認為他會喜歡他的樁象的照片嗎?
So --
我希望會。
所以...
(Applause)
(掌聲)
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.
有件事我覺得蠻奇怪的。 我是個視覺性的人、有創意的人, 但我仍然需要孩童的眼睛 來找到不凡的題材。 之前就是這樣。 所以我能說的就是, 非常謝謝你,賽巴斯汀; 我非常感恩。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)