[FINISHED] Mini-acrobats

Insects display highly varied and particularly high-performance flying techniques. Their wings are a perfect compromise between strength, rigidity, flexibility and weight!

This exhibition of photographs presented on the railings of the Jardin des Plantes invites you to see the invisible: the insect in flight, in its most fleeting movements.

While aeronautical engineers try to limit turbulence, insects deliberately create and use them: they create an airflow around their wings that produces a strong upward force.

Their small flapping wings are more like the blades of a rotor than an aircraft wing. But unlike a rotor, insect wings work in all three dimensions of space: the orientation of the wings changes during the flapping process, thereby enabling a variety of elliptical lifts.

All things considered, insects are akin to a helicopter with a rotor whose blades can be tilted and reshaped to vary the angle of attack during each rotation.

From Saturday 15 October 2022 to Sunday 14 May 2023 - Outdoor exhibition in the Jardin des Plantes (lien)°(last admissions 15 minutes before closing time).

Open every day - Opening times vary according to the season:

• from 1 to 29 October 2022: 8 am - 6.30 pm.
• from 30 October 2022 to 28 February 2023: 8 am - 5.30pm.

Ghislain Simard has been an insect enthusiast since childhood. Seeking to showcase the beauty of insect flight, he has developed specific photographic techniques designed to capture even the fastest of movements. He shares his skills through illustrated books, technical works for amateurs and in the specialist press. His photographs have won awards at the International Wildlife Photography Festival in Montier-en-Der, where his work is regularly on public display.

Explore our briefs, videos and collections on insects