The inspiration for my work came from Stan Brakhage’s Mothlight. The concept of presenting found materials from the natural world in an avant-garde manner resonated with me and became something I wanted to pursue creatively to really make my own. 

I experimented with a variety of techniques and discovered micrography provided the aesthetic I was looking for. I produced a series of thirty-second videos that I called Case Studies using this method. 

Although I enjoyed the work I was producing, I found the final product to be too chaotic for some of the more delicate subjects I wanted to showcase, particularly insects. So I transitioned away from the video format and focused on capturing individual micrographs. 

The transition was simple, and I quickly discovered that I loved taking these images of insects. They exist in a world so easily overlooked, so it forced me to slow down, to comb nook and cranny for a potential subject. It forced me to slow down my method of micrography as well, as something as diminutive as a gnat requires a delicate hand to manipulate.

This process reignited a sense of discovery I hadn’t experienced for quite some time. I felt like a kid again, turning over rocks in the garden to watch the pill bugs and crickets scurry about their hidden metropolis. This feeling became the goal of my work. I want to rekindle that same sense of discovery in the viewer and remind them of this beautiful, complex world that is so easily missed.