2006 – Satoshi Kuribayashi

“Using humour, empathy, beauty and unsurpassed precision he depicts both the insects themselves and their environments in fascinating video and still imagery. His images provide a new perspective on one of the Earth’s many ecosystems where human beings and insects prove to have unexpectedly much in common.”

Japanese nature photographer Satoshi Kuribayashi (b. 1939) has been distinguished for his outstanding photographs that provide an intimate look at the lives of insects. Kuribayashi’s pioneering photographic techniques and innovative methods are largely derived from his own inventiveness. He designs and fabricates optical devices and other photographic equipment required to both examine and capture imagery at the magnification required to accomplish his work. Kuribayashi calls one of his inventions, 40 years in the making, a “bug’s eye camera,” which is a medical instrument to which he has fitted a lens of only three millimeters in diameter.

He has published no less than 40 books, including In Front of the Ant, and produced numerous films, such as Universe Among the Grass – all of which focus on insect ecology.

Läs mer på Karolinska institutets webbplats