National Geographic

Photo by danwintersphoto | Two years ago I got a call from Whitney Johnson Latorre, Nat Geo’s director of visuals, to discuss an assignment. Could I do a portrait of Angelina Jolie (angelinajolie) connected to a worldwide initiative with UNESCO and Guerlain to teach sustainable beekeeping to women in third world countries? But it was the next part that really caught my attention: “How would you feel about doing a portrait of Angelina Jolie ... covered in bees?” As both a beekeeper and a portrait photographer, I was 100% in for the challenge. And having photographed Angelina Jolie before, I knew she had the moxie it would take to pull this off—the perfect collaborator for something so bold. Photographic policy would not allow for any re-touching of the images to make this work; it would all have to be done in-camera. I'm deeply reverent of the medium's history, and I couldn’t imagine this shoot happening without a nod to Richard Avedon’s iconic beekeeper portrait. With the help of a commercial beekeeper friend, I was able to acquire some of the actual queen bee pheromone entomologist Norman Gary formulated and applied on the subject, Ronald Fischer, for Avedon’s shoot, 40 years prior to ours. In contrast to Avedon’s portrait, I wanted it to feel like Angelina was draped in honeybees, as though they were jewels. I wanted to highlight their precious nature. The end result was due to the efforts of the many people who helped make it happen. Those 18 minutes where Angelina stood calmly in front of my camera covered in bees to create this majestic portrait, for a cause close to her heart, catapulted her to a legend in my world. When we finished, she walked unceremoniously out the studio doors to the parking lot and jumped up and down to shake the bees from her gauzy gown. They flew away and the shoot was over. I feel grateful to have collaborated with her and natgeo to bring attention to these fascinating and critical insects, called by some as the most important living beings on Earth. Read the full story at the link in bio. Happy #WorldBeeDay!

Video by javier_aznar_photography | I came upon this creepy scene in Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park. A nocturnal hunter, this wandering spider of the Ctenidae family targeted a dead katydid but also fed on a parasitic worm that was exiting the katydid. Two for the price of one. To find out more about these mesmerizing animals, see the March issue or go to the link in bio. Follow javier_aznar_photography to learn more about spiders and other small creatures.