WonderLand, Beautiful Up-Close Photographs of a Miniature Fantasy

Nadav Bagim, who is also known as Aimishboy, has photographed WonderLand, a beautiful work-in-progress series of up-close images that he describes as a “…visit to a miniature fantasy”. He uses no digital manipulation to create these colorful images of insects, lizards, and other critters found near his apartment. He mainly uses his kitchen table studio as the stage for the surreal macro shots. Nadav has posted the entire online gallery of WonderLand.

My Modern Met interviewed Nadav, where he discussed some of the nuts and bolts of working with insects:

Directing the insects requires understanding of their behaviors. Once you do understand, you’ll know how to make them feel comfortable so they won’t run away and how to make them stand and pose the way you want them to. The trick is to “convince” them that they were the ones who chose what to do and where to stand. Taking the insect and placing it at the center of the stage just won’t do. You have to lead them slowly to the point you choose. For example, you slowly move a small cube of sugar and let them follow it. But that kind of interaction requires a lot of patience and gentleness. A shooting session can easily reach several hours. I never start shooting this way unless I know I have at least about 12 hours to spare, just in case. Of course it’s in an eased fashion with a lot of intermissions for me and for the models.