Bug Eyed

- Dan Richards

Most parents are not, as a rule, overjoyed when their kid comes home with head lice. But John Hallmén is different.

“This year in March my son finally came through with some head lice!” he gushed. So he photographed one of the little bugs (“I think it’s a female”) poised on a shaft of reddish brown hair. Looking at his image, at the lower right of page 54, you realize that what is ordinarily considered a repulsive creature is weirdly beautiful.

That’s what Swedish photographer Hallmén does. He shows us the incredible, strange beauty of tiny beings—insects, other arthropods like spiders and pillbugs, and worms—you get the picture.

“I’ve been interested in bugs and other animals since I was very little,” he tells us. “If you look at video footage from my childhood you typically see me searching for frogs, snakes, or bugs underneath rocks in the background or holding some interesting find up to the camera. I got my first SLR when I was 13 years old, back in 1992, and made many attempts at macro photography. However, at that time I found it quite frustrating. Experimentation was expensive back in the analog days!”