Don’t forget the story..it’s not about the spiders….

“I wrote in my previous post about how photography can be said to explain everything and yet reveal nothing. And now I find myself realising that I may have taken some photographs that illustrate precisely that characteristic. I can hardly believe the reaction that these pictures have generated.”

Behind Russell Watkins’ widely distributed images of the ‘spider trees of Pakistan’ lies the story of the huge flooding in Sindh, Pakistan:

Image above © Russell Watkins, creative commons license.

“An unexpected side-effect of the flooding in parts of Pakistan has been that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters. Because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water has taken so long to recede, many trees have become cocooned in spiders webs. People in this part of Sindh have never seen this phenonemon before – but they also report that there are now less mosquitos than they would expect, given the amoungt of stagnant, standing water that is around. It is thought that the mosquitos are getting caught in the spiders webs, thus lowering the chance of being bitten. This may in turn be reducing the risk of malaria, which would be one blessing for the people of Sindh, facing so many other hardships.”

In a really interesting post Russell writes about the images, and his hopes that the story behind them is not forgotten:

I suppose my hope is that at least some people will see these images and see beyond the amazing natural phenomenon, and want to find out more about what is really going there. The people of Sindh still need help.”