On Nov. 16, 2005............................
Kjell Sandved was sitting on a tree branch in Panama when he found himself staring into the face of a viper. The poisonous snake had coiled its body a few times around a nearby branch. Its neck rested on the coils.
"Its head," Sandved says, "was sticking out and looking at me."
Instead of reacting with terror and panic, like most people would, Sandved noticed something remarkable. Resting in this position, the snake looked like the letter "Q."
It wasn't the first letter of the alphabet that Sandved had picked out while observing nature. In 1975, the talented photographer had published a poster displaying every letter in the alphabet, each one found somewhere on the wings of butterflies and moths. Later, he finished a colorful collection of letters, numbers, and symbols found throughout the natural world. Completing both alphabets consumed him for 24 years.
Now 83 years old, Sandved has continued his quest. Recent photographs include patterns that resemble faces, eyes, ampersands, the Greek letter pi, and the shapes of cats and mice.
