Steven Katzman photo exhibit at MOSI

As of March 2nd there is a new photographic display at MOSI and I am very, very excited about it. Steven Katzman 11 large scale photos can be found in a long corridor on the second floor of the museum, just past the Disasterville exhibit.
These images are of insects: beetles, millipedes, butterflies. It is amazing how easily we can overlook insects in our lives but these photos present the bugs in a way that is very striking. They are big! They are shot in exquisite detail. They are breathtaking.

On display until April 30th, come check out these very extraordinary images of insects at MOSI. And now... a word from our Artist: Steven Katzman


Katzman Photo Exhibit Artist Statement
MOSI, Tampa, Florida

I recently received permission to photograph the beetle collection at the Florida Department of Agriculture’s Entomology Museum. With millions of specimens to choose from, I gravitated towards a few old boxes on a shelf, beetles that were left intact from a German collector, never formally being cataloged into the Museum’s main collection. Always inquisitive, I found out that the specimen trays originated from the Field Museum. As I became deeply involved documenting my subject matter, the proverbial light bulb exploded in my head. The Field Museum of Natural History!

Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska during the 50’s, Chicago’s relatively close proximity provided an opportunity for a family vacation. We spent time at the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Field Museum of Natural History. Our day almost complete, I asked my parents if I could go to the Field’s gift shop where I immediately gravitated towards a large specimen displayed in an elaborate glass case. My father bought me the Rhinoceros Beetle, and it would become my prized possession, eventually replaced by other youthful priorities. Forty-five years later, I was once again looking at a Rhinoceros Beetle that captured my childhood imagination.

The specimen trays were created from multiple collectors’ hands, culminating over years of casual research. Their pattern, arrangement and display of insects preserved in their present state of arrest by this photographer’s camera. I cannot understand why I didn’t become an entomologist with my fascinations of insects, butterflies and moths as a child. Perhaps it was the thought that I perceived it cruel to capture a living creature, ending its life with a pin through its thorax or wings.

These photographs are not for us to debate the process of research, regardless of its environmental or social impact upon our ecosystem, but to rekindle those child hood memories that can easily escape on the wings of a