Contagious plant photography

Bruce Malcolm gets inspired to produce some virus-style images to capture his experience of lockdown during the pandemic

Hairy dogs can capture all sorts of undergrowth in their fur. While Bruce Malcolm was taking some ‘sticky beak’ ( bidenspilosa) burrs off his dog one day, with the TV news playing in the background, he made a visual connection with the idea of a virus, and a new photo project was born. “The TV was showing images of the coronavirus, so I thought I’d try to emulate them with the burr,” he says.

“As the virus has no colour, what we see is an artistic interpretation, so I decided to emulate the TV station’s dramatic approach and used deep-red cellophane paper over the flash units.”

Although the results are certainly eye-catching, the photo shoot turned out not to last as long as Bruce had expected.

“I was going to refine the setup and lighting when I inadvertently bumped the burrs, and they became inextricably locked together by their barbed ends. They’re very difficult to handle.”