Thorben Danke, from near Stuttgart, has been working as a self-taught photographer since 2016. He specialises in macro and micro photography of native insects. In his exhibitions he brings insects to eye level with visitors, opening up access to native wildlife for young and old. Each image consists of up to several hundred single exposures combined using a special technique.
Nikon selected his image of a sleeping cuckoo wasp for the top 100 of its worldwide photomicrography competition, and National Geographic named it one of the science photos of the year. This led to his first publication as an author, “Ganz nah dran” (Rheinwerk Verlag), a technical handbook for getting started in macro photography.
Using self-developed software and hardware, he succeeded in creating high-resolution rotating sequences of insects. Since 2023 these moving 3D stacks have been featured on Netflix in the Steven Spielberg-produced series “Life on Our Planet”, a follow-up to the award-winning series “Our Planet”.
In September 2024 Kosmos Verlag published his biggest project to date: “Von Angesicht zu Angesicht – Auf Augenhöhe mit heimischen Insekten” (Face to Face – eye to eye with native insects). Created together with the authors Thomas Hörren and Dominik Eulberg, it is a sparkling plea for our native insect world.
In the media
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