I love nature, including any phenomenon that are related to natural occurrences, animals, plants and anything that exist in our surrounding. Recently, I have come across with a good book on butterfly that I would like to share with all of you.
Image sourceThis book is given a title as “The Butterfly Alphabet” and its author is Kjell (pronounced shell) Bloch Sandved who is a Norwegian born author, lecturer and nature photographer born in 1922. His Butterfly Alphabet contains many stunning photographs of butterflies' wings resembling all the 26 letters as in the Latin alphabet with every letter from A to Z, and the Arabic numerals from 1 to 9. In fact, photographer, Kjell Sandved has made his life's work to capture this amazing butterfly alphabet, in which I certain that this glorious book is his fruitful result of his labor, perseverance and patience.
Dexter Sear at Insects.org comments this book as a great example of cultural entomology. Kjell Sandved remarks, “To find beauty in the world, you have to look closely.”
Each page of its left side displays a small full color photo of the butterfly, accompanying with a poetic verse which would be most appreciated by adults, children or anyone who likes poetry. There is also another sentence which gives the common name of the butterfly or moth. Its feature letter is in capital and in script style. On the right side of each page, you will come across with a full color page of the photograph that shows the magnificent patterns caught on the butterfly's wing. Each butterfly has been photographed to reveal a letter of the alphabet. Its pattern just looks like the featured letter of the alphabet that we learnt at the early age. This is truly an extraordinary work of art that I think it will be enjoyed by anyone, including adults and children while having fun learning the alphabets by looking at those magnificent butterflies' wings with the featured alphabets written on.
The magical tribute to butterflies was told through poetry in his book as follows:
“Ornaments floating in the air,
Charming all who see them there.”
“So simple is the majesty,
Of nature's vibrant tapestry.”
“Nature's angels fill the skies
In twinkling butterfly disguise.”
The poems in this book are beautiful as they are an expression of the extraordinary beauty that could be found in the nature. The beauty of the nature transports us to an enchanting place via the fluttering as well as the fanciful beauty that could only be found by observing the magnificent butterfly that human could encounter in their lifetimes.
As we can observe while reading this book is that each of these extraordinary photographs comes from the stunning and brilliant patterns caught on the wings of moths and butterflies. These patterns are unique designs of its species. They are used either for disguise against predators or to attract its mate while mating.
Kjell Sandved told us that the motivation behind his life's work was originated from the spectacular pattern of the butterfly itself when he said, “It is written on the wings of butterflies.” He wrote in his introduction to The Butterfly Alphabet as, "One day many years ago, as I was looking through a microscope at a tropical moth, to my surprise I noticed a tiny, perfect letter F hidden on the wing. I was astounded and wondered if I could find other letters. Perhaps I could even find the entire alphabet in the wings of butterflies and moths! I decided that I was going to be the first to try." When he discovered a butterfly with a silvery, gleaming letter “F” woven into the tapestry of its wings, he was an exchange student working in the Smithsonian. Having favored on this perfect “F” letter, he began wondering whether other species of butterflies or moths are flying around with letters decorated on their wings. Kjell recalls, “….and marveled at the scales in soft pastel and sparkling silver. Not even a calligrapher could have improved on its beauty. It reminded me of how the ancient scribes lovingly embellished letters in bibles and illuminated manuscripts with human and animal forms.” This butterfly alphabet quest took him years to unveil the hidden letters in the butterflies' wings.
The Butterfly Alphabet took him more than 25 years to complete. He spent 24 years visiting to over 30 countries worldwide in search for the 26 letters of the alphabet in the wings of the butterflies and moths. Finally, he succeeded to bring us all the 26 alphabets that he managed to come across while photographing butterflies. The outcome of “The Butterfly Alphabet” is his great achievement which reveals many astoundingly beautiful and varied wing pattern designs of butterflies and moths found in our nature.
This book is not only a great example of cultural entomology but also it is a representation of an interesting twist subject on an entomological typography. It brings us a clear message to watch our nature closely so as to capture its beauty even for just a glimpse of look. Kjell Sandved remarks, “Nature's message is clear to see.” These beautifully letters that decorated on the wings of the butterflies are the best method for teachers and even parents to help the children to learn the alphabet better and in an easier way while expanding their ideas on butterflies. Indeed, these photographs have opened up our eyes to learn things that were not taught at schools.
Undoubtedly, Kjell's work must gain much recognition and appreciation from us as he greatly admires the nature beauty of the butterflies. He also shows his elevated appreciation status towards the butterflies as well as the status that are held over other insects on earth.
I would suggest this book to be used in the classroom to learn about butterflies or moths while learning the 26 letters of the alphabet in a more interesting and diverse manner. As for my conclusion, this book is incredible and interesting for whom who had read it!
Article inspired by and images from Mail Online.
