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| http://www.artnet.com/artists/joseph-scheer/artworks-for-sale |
Joseph Scheer is famous for his works in print and on the web. He has employed technology to enhance nature in how one views it and how one thinks of it. He is known for his prints of moths. He worked with a technical speciality, Klingensmith, who provided Scheer with the scanner responsible for capturing three-dimensional images of moths (National Geographic). The special scanner can take up to 20 minutes to scan a single moth, resulting in high pixel images and expansive data files.
In this prints, one is able to see moths at high resolution. Detail is visible that may not even be visible to the naked eye. His prints are blown up to over 30" large and sold. It truly is an enhancement of nature. Joseph spends a great deal of time perfecting each picture, keeping the actual moth in view as he edits the digital files of the moth. He does this so the picture is a fair representation of the actual moth (National Geographic).
When one thinks of a moth, one does not think "beauty". I think of insects that are on my door and fly into my house. Joseph captures the beauty of a moth, and the detail of its structure, in a way nobody had before him. What I admire most about the prints are that they are so realistic. With photoshop and other digital tools, it is quite simple to enhance an image to make it more vibrant and appealing, even if it is already appealing in the first place. For instance, the picture of the dragonfly on this page is attractive. The original was attractive and received many compliments (credit to Matthew Wise) but I enhanced it to look even more vibrant and sharp. Joseph does not enhance his moth pictures in the slightest. He works to preserve their natural form, enhancing them so that people can see and appreciate the moth better, but not striving to make it look falsely beautiful. With all the available options of enhancement in this day and age, I think it's commendable and the thing I appreciate most about his art.
As someone who does indeed consider moths beautiful, I love this type of work. It really captures the the kind of subtle, soft feeling of a moth, especially when you think of them compared to flashy butterflies. I love how you can see right down to every individual scale and fiber. You can really see every individual piece that makes them up, all of the segments connecting together, which I think is the most fascinating things about arthropods, and which a lot of people consider frightening or disgusting, yet these pieces really capture the softness and beauty of that complexity. The only thing that sort of depresses me is that the moths had to be killed in order for these scans to be made.
ReplyDeleteThese are really impressive images. I like how he was to capture such a detailed close up image of a moth. You can see the lines and grains of the moth's wings. I wonder if he has worked with any other objects besides moths.
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