#scalo

Cornelia Hesse-Honegger (b. 1944), a Swiss illustrator and photographer, focuses her work at the intersection of art and science, in particular the mutagenic effects of radiation on insects. In the 70s, she began her work painting true bugs, but in 1986, in response to the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, began painting the effects of radioactive fallout and exposure on the insect world. Since then, she has visited and collected specimens from around the world: Three-Mile Island, Nevada’s Nuclear Test Site, Washington State’s nuclear weapons manufacturing facilities in Hanford, and Fukushima, Japan. This book, originally published in German in 1998, is an incredible look at not just Hesse-Honegger’s gorgeous work but also the ways in which the Anthropocene is shaping the insect world.

Few are as instrumental as this book in bringing to the fore the raw genuineness of family affairs in modern photography. As viewers, we can’t help but empathize with the characters of Ray and Liz and their oh-so-real, yet uncomfortably bizarre lives. A definite photobook classic!

By Perico001