Levon Biss: insects larger than life
British photographer Levon Biss shoots insects, seeds and museum specimens in such detail that every tiny hair shows.
What it is
Levon Biss is a British photographer who shoots insects, seeds and other museum specimens in such detail that every hair and every pit on a beetle's shell is visible. He is best known for Microsculpture, a project built on the insect collection of Oxford University Museum of Natural History. On Instagram he shares both the finished images and how they're made.
Why we picked it
Insect macro photography is usually limited by shallow depth of field: only a thin slice of the subject is ever sharp. Biss gets around that. Each Microsculpture portrait is assembled from thousands of individual frames at different focus points, shot section by section and stitched together. The result is a beetle the size of a fingernail printed metres wide and still crisp to the last detail. The exhibition has since travelled to many countries.
After insects he turned to plants, photographing specimens from the carpology collection of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for a series on seeds and fruits. For "Extinct & Endangered", made with the American Museum of Natural History, he photographed insects that are either extinct or under threat. The feed pairs this work with behind-the-scenes posts on lighting, rigs and handling museum collections.
Where to start
- The Microsculpture beetles with metallic shells, the most striking images.
- Process posts showing the lighting and section-by-section shooting.
- The seeds and fruits series, full of surprisingly sculptural forms.
- "Extinct & Endangered", on insects at risk of disappearing.
- His website, where each project is presented in full.
Who it's for
Nature and macro photography fans, photographers curious about focus stacking, biologists, and parents of curious kids. After this feed, bugs stop looking creepy and start looking like jewellery.
Quick answers
What is Microsculpture? Levon Biss's series of insect portraits from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History collection, each built from thousands of photographs.
Why are the images so sharp? Focus stacking: many frames with different focus points are merged into one image.
Does he photograph anything besides insects? Yes, including a series on seeds and fruits and a project on extinct and endangered insects.
