Lennart Nilsson Award

2006: Satoshi Kuribayashi
the 9th Lennart Nilsson Award Winner

2006 Lennart Nilsson Award Press Release
October 12, 2006

Lennart Nilsson Award for outstanding photography of the world of insects

The 2006 Lennart Nilsson Award prize for scientific photography has been awarded to Satoshi Kuribayashi, a Japanese nature photographer. Mr Kuribayashi was selected as this year’s prize-winner because of the photographic techniques he pioneered to photograph the world of the insect in a new and unique method.

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.

Satoshi Kuribayashi, 67, has worked as a freelance photographer since the 1960s. Since those beginnings, he has published no less than 40 books and films, all focusing on insect ecology. Kuribayashi’s unique methods are based largely on his skills in designing and fabricating optical devices and other photographic equipment required to both examine and capture imagery at the magnification required to accomplish this work. One of his innovations includes a medical instrument to which he has fitted a lens of only three millimetres in diameter. His most recent publications include the book "In Front of the Ant" and the film "Universe Among the Grass".

For more information about and images by Satoshi Kuribayashi, visit his web site Kuriken, www.kurivision.com (mainly in Japanese).

Download the press release as PDF in English or Swedish.

For additional contacts with the board of Lennart Nilsson Award:

Catharina Nilsson, LNA board member
Phone: +46-8-103215
Email: [email protected]

Staffan Larsson, LNA board secretary
Phone: +46-703-193353
Email: [email protected]

For high-resolution versions of images below, contact Staffan Larsson, +46-703-193353, [email protected].
Use of this material is only approved when used in connection with the information related to the Lennart Nilsson Award.
Image information as PDF

Images are of, top to bottom, left to right: Praying mantis [Paratenodera aridifolia], Mulberry longicorn beetle [Apriona japonica], Japanese tiger beetle [Cicindera japonica], Japanese lacewing [Nacaura matsumurai], Giant Asian hornet [Vespa mandarinia], Korean horned beetles [Allomyrina dichotoma], Mulberry longicorn beetle [Apriona japonica], Migratory locust [Locusta migratoria] & Ant [Messor aciculatum]