Dodelijke Schoonheid - Documentaire fotografie door Marlonneke Willemsen

If we put new plants in the garden and they are eaten by insects, snails and other animals, what happens? With this question in mind, documentary photographer Marlonneke Willemsen started her project Invisible Threat last spring.

For her previous photography project about growth and development in animals, the photos of which were previously shown in Het Natuurhistorisch during the Growth exhibition, she experienced problems feeding leaf-eating insects. When she bought a 'normal' plant at the garden centre, the animals inexplicably died. Marlonneke did some research and came across several studies that showed that the majority of plants in the garden center contain one or more pesticides, including insecticides, which have been developed to kill insects as effectively as possible.

Because few people know about this, she decided to make a photo series about this by buying 10 different garden plants and feeding them to different insects and snails. The results were shocking; in 9 out of 10 cases, all animals were dead within hours to days. The only animals that survived, slug snails, had eaten from a new plant with a German eco-label.