Zooming in on what creeps, crawls and flies

Basel is not only home to the world’s largest beetle collection. It is also teeming, like everywhere else, with insects which live alongside humans. Basel photographer Adrian Künzli has taken a closer look at some of his house guests. 

For this project Künzli didn’t have to travel far. In fact he never even had to leave his property. All the insects in this gallery either flew or crawled to him. He discovered his models on his drawing room window, in the kitchen, down in the cellar or in the garden. 

With one exception: the praying mantis. A cocoon full of eggs accidentally stowed away aboard Künzli’s rucksack after a holiday in Spain. 

The finished images are often a composite of several photos. Thus, with the help of Photoshop, we can see things that are otherwise blurred. The unfamiliar levels of sharpness and the colouring of the pictures make them seem unreal, while the wafer-thin wings and the fine hairs on the legs reveal the nature of the insects in full detail. 

“Suddenly I saw I was surrounded by insects,” Künzli says. “On the windowsill, in wilting flowers on the living room table or in the garden, in our son’s unused paddling pool, where flying ants suddenly appeared in the warm, stagnant water.”