What’s not to love about undersea creatures? They are so wondrous I’m having a hard time picking just one of the photos from Susan Middleton’s 2014 book Spineless.
Maria Popova reviews the book at Brain Pickings.
“In Spineless, visual artist, educator, and explorer Susan Middleton turns her luminous lens to … the exquisite and enigmatic world of marine invertebrates, which represent 98% of the known animal species in the oceans and are thus the backbone of life on our blue planet, on which 97% of the water is ocean. …
“Using a special photographic technique she developed, Middleton captures an astounding diversity of creatures, ranging from giant squid to tiny translucent jellyfish to two species so new to science — the Kanola squat lobster and the Wanawana crab — that they have been formally named based on the very individuals in the book. Her photographs are at once austere and deeply alive — against the plain black or white background, these creatures fill the frame with striking intimacy of presence.”
(Doesn’t Popova write beautifully? She is from Bulgaria. I just mention that because one of the the best writers I worked with at my old job was Bulgarian. It can happen. We all know about late learners of English who became masters: Joseph Conrad, Vladimir Nabokov, Tom Stoppard.)
More on Susan Middleton’s book here. Marine defender Sylvia Earle wrote the foreward.
Photo: Susan Middleton
Hanging stomach jellyfish (Stomotoca atra)
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