This week, through working on another project unrelated to writing, I have been in contact with a wonderful photographer called Harf Zimmermann. He is based in Berlin and has photographed all sorts of things - landscapes, people, buildings, ruins, panoramic shots of distant islands and, what caught my attention, some of the wonders of the Berlin Natural History Museum. Amongst these he has photographed butterflies - and one of his beautiful photographs is of the Morpho Godarti which is the same butterfly that appears on the cover of The Butterfly Heart.
Morpho Godarti photographed by Harf Zimmermann
There are many others photographed for the same exhibition which ran in Berlin during January and February. One of these is a butterfly called Papilio Blumei, the Peacock or Green Swallowtail butterfly which is found only on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Here it is.
Papilio Blumei photographed by Harf Zimmermann
The power of photography is enormous if we think of the images in our newspapers, on the web and on our television screens. Another photographer whose work I have come across in recent times is Stephanie Sinclair, who, like Harf, has done work for the New York Times. One of her photographic projects was on the issue of child marriage and this picture below of Ghulam Haider does, as the old saying goes, paint a thousand words.
Ghulam Haider, 11, is to be married to Faiz Mohammed, 40. She had hoped to be a teacher but was forced to quit her classes when she became engaged.
Photograph by Stephanie Sinclair, for the NY Times.