Mike and Doug Starn b. 1961

Mike and Doug Starn, fascinated by the behavior of moths, have been making portraits of them at their lake house north of New York City since 1996.  The moths are lured to a medium format camera with a macro lens and extension tubes for magnification.  This 'huge contraption of a camera' is handheld, as there is no time to set up a tripod.

'The wings of moths are covered with "dusty" scales that give them some friction on the air, and as they bang against the light or your window you might see some of those scales fall off.  You can feel the velvety texture of their wings if you hold one in your hand.  Those fragile wings are the medium they use to bring their bodies to the light.  The portraits of the moths printed on Thai mulberry paper make use of a technique we refined, in which the silver emulsion coated on the paper softens during darkroom processing and minute flakes of the image wash away; a mimesis of the mimics' delicate wings.  The process is archival; the emulsion is then "hardened" and made permanent' (Attracted to Light, p. 118).