Ferndale photographer gets international spotlight with nomination for People’s Choice Award

If you ask Joseph Ferraro, a Ferndale photographer, where he gets inspiration, he’ll tell you that there’s beauty everywhere — even in the small things you overlook in your own yard. The Metro Detroit macro wildlife photographer has been nominated for the People’s Choice Award in the internationally renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, organized by the Natural History Museum.

Chosen from more than 60,000 entries across 110 countries, Ferraro’s photo, “Ready to Pounce,” is one of 24 images shortlisted for the global public vote. Public voting is open until March 18. The image is currently on display at the Natural History Museum in London and locally in Highland, MI. 

Ferraro has been an artist most of his life, but started his macro photography journey about 12 years ago. He was seeking a change in artistic forms and a new way to feel inspired again. 

“I decided to try out macro photography because I could do it contained, controlled, and from my yard,” he says. “It just kind of grew from there. I fell back in love with photography, fell in love with the tiny world around us. I kept doing it, learning, and growing. The more I learned, the more I realized I didn’t know much about all the creatures in life around us.”

Ferraro explains that macro photography is unique in that an artist photographs a subject or object one-to-one on the imaging plane or sensor, which means it’s the actual size. 

“If you take a photograph of a bee that’s 10 millimeters in size in the real world, my full 35 millimeter sensor would measure across 10 millimeters. So you’re photographing things as they really appear  — you’re not just taking a photo and then cropping in on it. It has to start at that 1:1 ratio.”

Since he began taking photos in his backyard garden, Ferraro has also become more interested in wildlife and conservation efforts, even hosting workshops and speaker events. He enjoys highlighting the small, beautiful creatures that exist around us in nature that are typically overlooked. 

“I can use my macro photography to make the subjects as beautiful as I can, to highlight them and show their beauty. It can kind of shift people’s perceptions of things like wasps, bees, and spiders — things that they would normally have an aversion to.”

While Detroit might be known for its grit and industry, Ferraro has also found the area to be full of inspiration when it comes to nature photography. 

“The beauty of macro photography is that it can be found anywhere, especially like when I’m photographing small creatures. Detroit photography is usually street photography or architecture, but we have such wide open spaces that have been re-wilded. Organizations are going back to urban farming, growing and food forests.”

He appreciates the feeling of calm that macro photography evokes. He considers it a form of meditation, where everything else in the world disappears for a moment.

“When I’m photographing small creatures, like the ambush bug that’s part of the award, it has to exist in this frame,” he says. “I photograph everything handheld and up-close. The tip of my lens is anywhere from an inch to four inches away from the subject, so I’m right there intimately with the subject. You tend to get a better sense of respect for the creatures around you, being immersed in the scene you’re photographing.”

The ambush bug is part of the assassin bug family, and is pretty common in the Detroit area, says Ferraro. This particular one was photographed right outside the artists’ front door in the front yard. They’re one of his top three subjects he likes to take photos of. 

“They are amazing little creatures,” he says. “They are ambush predators that wait in the top of the flower for an insect to wander too close. They can take down prey almost 10 times their size. They reach out, grab the prey, venom it, and instantly paralyze and then drink their prey. That’s how they feed.”

The “Ready to Pounce” photo is a reminder that you don’t have to go far for nearby nature to inspire you, and tiny, fascinating, neighbor insects live right outside your door. Having his photo selected for the People’s Choice running has been “crazy humbling” for the artist, who previously never got this far into the competition. 

“It was a validation of my work, like I was on the right path,” he says. “As an artist and creative person, you always have that little self-doubt, negative voice, or imposter syndrome in your head. Getting shortlisted and recognized is a validation that I’m doing the right thing, and people are seeing value and beauty in my work.”

Most of the other photographs in the running for the People’s Choice showcase exotic locales such as Costa Rica or majestic lions and stately polar bears. 

“Even in our yard, you have these creatures that look exotic,” Ferraro says. “They look like they’re not from here. That beauty and those exotic things are here, you just have to look closer,” he says. “It’s nice to give attention to these smaller creatures because in these wildlife competitions, the megafauna have always dominated. It’s nice to shine a spotlight on these other creatures that don’t look like us, that we can’t necessarily relate to, but we still want to protect them and show that they’re just as important in the ecosystem as the larger fauna.”

His large-format work is on exhibit outside and inside the Belle Isle Nature Center. Ferraro is hosting an artist talk, “Portraits of the Overlooked,” on March 14 at 12:30 p.m. at Huron Valley Arts in Highland.