Earlier this
year, scientists from Harvard spent two months documenting insects in
Mozambique. This was the first step in a long-term project, led by the
biologist E. O. Wilson, to survey all life — and then help restore it —
in the Gorongosa National Park, which was nearly destroyed by the
country’s civil war. To avoid killing his portrait subjects, one of the
entomologists, Piotr Naskrecki, built an open-air studio of white fabric
that the bugs were free to flee if they wanted. Some did, forcing
Naskrecki to chase them down. Others stayed — perhaps out of curiosity.
‘‘They will look at you, they will judge you,’’ he says. ‘‘They were
very suspicious of the camera, and they were very wary of me. I’m sure
that none of these animals had ever seen a human. They did not know what
to make of us.’’
Julie Bosman
