In 1914, Marian and David Fairchild published Book of Monsters. This fabulous book features early macro photographs of creepy crawlies. The couple found innovative ways to photograph dead bugs from their backyard, transforming these everyday creatures into close up "monsters".
The spiders, pill bugs, grasshoppers, and other critters in this book are both ethereal and frightening. The book places the viewer at eye level with all the bugs, making you feel like prey. I love the smokey, black and white look of these dreamy images.
How the Fairchilds took their photos, from the PDR: "Inspired by the macro photographs of the American nematologist Dr N. A. Cobb, the Fairchilds devised a novel photographic setup. They created cameras with inordinately long extension tubes to magnify the images and create a dramatic, narrow depth of field. Larger specimens could be photographed with tubes five or eight feet long, smaller ones needed up to twenty feet! These tubes were created from cardboard and were supported on a long table, with a lens at one end and a photographic plate at the other. The specimen was placed in front of the lens by one person, and shifted carefully until someone at the other end could see it was in focus. Then, the lens was covered up and an orthochromatic double-coated photographic plate was slotted in, ready for exposure, which would last fifty to eighty seconds. A magnesium flash prevented unwanted shadows and the specimen was shaded from bright sun by a sheet of glass covered in tissue."
See also: Photos and videos of bugs and stuff with my USB microscope
