Top: Macrophtographers (right to left) Larry Asego, Martha Mutiso, Eric
Gitonga, Abdul Mutuma, and Sabore Noah. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU
Bottom: Insects (left to right) Larry Asego’s Butterfly, Martha Mutiso’s
Ant carrying heavy load, Eric Gitonga praying mantis eating another,
and An insect photographed by Sabore Noah. PHOTOS | COURTESY
By Margaretta wa Gacheru
In Summary
- Featuring five adventurous Kenyan photographers (some amateurs, others professionals) who taught themselves the art of macro-photography, their show is aptly entitled Bugging: A Macro Journey.
- The exhibition exposes the incredible beauty of our indigenous bugs, all of which were snapped in Nairobi apart from one dragonfly that environmentalist Martha Nzisa Mutiso shot at Lake Ol Bolosat in the Aberdares.
Bugs have been given a bad name, mostly by mosquitos
that transmit malaria and by cockroaches who invade homes when food has
been left out for them to munch.
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But the image of bugs, especially those insects known as
arthropods, is changing thanks to macro-photography, the specialised
sort of photo-shoot that magnifies the most minute bugs (such as fruit
flies) and shows how intricately designed these tiny creatures are.
Alliance Francaise just held its first
macro-photographic exhibition which is soon to be seen again at the
Nairobi National Museum.
Featuring five adventurous Kenyan photographers
(some amateurs, others professionals) who taught themselves the art of
macro-photography, their show is aptly entitled Bugging: A Macro Journey.
Mounted in collaboration with Nature Kenya,
National Museums of Kenya, Photographers Association of Kenya and the
Copyright Board of Kenya, the colourful (and occasionally creepy)
exhibition exposes the incredible beauty of our indigenous bugs, all of
which were snapped in Nairobi apart from one dragonfly that
environmentalist Martha Nzisa Mutiso shot at Lake Ol Bolosat in the
Aberdares.
Otherwise, Martha together with Larry Asego, Eric
Gitonga, Abdul Mutuma, and Sabore Noah spent hours every Saturday for
weeks searching for and shooting bugs in Karura Forest, at the Nairobi
Museum and in the Arboretum.
Facebook
“Most of us actually met on Facebook on the
Photographers Association of Kenya (PAK) page. That’s where I first
heard about macro-photography,” said Larry Asego.
Best known for being the Classic Radio announcer we
listen to in the afternoon, most people may not know that Larry is also
a French teacher at Alliance Francaise, former actor with Heartstrings
Kenya and amateur sports photographer who only discovered
macro-photography a few months ago.
By working closely with photo-professional and
ex-electrical engineer Eric Gitonga and getting online tips from the
other members of their group, Asego has come to love not only insects
but macro-photography as well.
What makes this exhibition so special is the new
appreciation one is bound to gain from seeing in breathtaking detail
both the intricate anatomy and the dazzling coloration of these tiny
creatures.
“They’re so small, people tend to ignore them
unless they crowd into people’s personal space and then they are given a
swat,” said Asego who goes out almost daily to shoot bugs with his
Canon D60 camera.
“Then I put my images online for everyone to
critique and offer advice about how I can improve my work. We all do
this for each other.”
Noting that Eric Gitonga has been his biggest
source of inspiration and encouragement, Asego adds that everyone in
their group has contributed to his development as a macro-photographer.
What I also find most intriguing about the 40-odd
images (eight images per photographer) is that practically all of them
are action photos that tell sharp detailed stories of bugs’ everyday
lives.
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