Snail shells with round organic shapes | Black and white nature photography by Denise Tiggelman

About "Snail shells with round organic shapes | Black and white nature photography"

by Denise Tiggelman

About the artwork

Art can also be experienced in nature. Like these stacked snail shells with round organic shapes. The black and white tones make it a print suitable for many different interior styles.

Snails are not popular. They have slimy skin and like to eat from our garden. The snail is also difficult to eradicate. Apparently, they have designed a hugely useful tactic to survive. In fact, snails have been around since the Cambrian. That's about 500 million years ago. There are now some 75,000 species of snails. How did they survive all these eras? Perhaps it helps that snails are not picky. Among other things, they eat spoiled plant remains, excrement, cadavers and even their own kind. Incredibly good cleaners, in other words. They are also hermaphrodite. This means they are both male and female. When snails mate, they can fertilize each other and both lay eggs. They lay as many as 500 eggs at a time. In addition, snails have even been found that can shed their genitals. The Chromodoris reticulata, a type of sea snail drops its genitalia after the act and can grow a new one and mate again in minutes.

Snail shells come in all kinds of sizes, colors and shapes. The species in this work are of the Shrub snail (Arianta arbustorum). A lesser known species that you won't easily find in your garden either. The house of the snail, as with trees, tells something about its age. The house of the snail begins in the egg.

Photography: Denise Tiggelman