At first look, it’s astonishing to see the face of a Hollywood actor covered in bees all over their face. However, a closer look tells a deeper story of the fragile balance between humans and pollinating insects on which most of the food we tend to consume depends.
Angelina Jolie created a hanging portrait for National Geographic to draw attention to the imperative to be compelled to shield bees on World Bee Day, furthermore because of the UNESCO-Guerlain program that trains women to work as beekeepers and protectors of bee habitats around the world.
Photographer Dan Winters, an amateur beekeeper, was inspired by the far-famed 1981 portrait of Richard Avedon, a California beekeeper whose vacant body part was lined with bees.
Jolie was motivated by many things: bees as an irreplaceable pillar of our food supply, that are destroyed by parasites, pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change, and especially a world network of women who are going to be trained to protect the bees.
“With so much, we are worried about around the world and so many people feeling overwhelmed with bad news and the reality of what is collapsing, this is one that we can manage,” Jolie said. “We can certainly all step in and do our part.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (UN), 3 of the 4 leading crops used for human consumption and over a third of agricultural land worldwide rely partially on pollinators. It’s not only fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Bees conjointly cross-pollinate grass consumed by cows. According to the American Beekeeping Federation, honey bees provide about 20 billion American crops. Pollinators support food production worldwide, and the estimated value of that production is over 200 billion dollars.
However, bee populations in many countries have fallen sharply within the previous decade, after a problem with various colonies was identified in 2006. These mass bee deaths are happening because of the pesticides, parasitic varroa mites, and shrinkage of the natural habitat. The global climate also has a bad impact on species around the world.
Jolie said that there are people who want to help the cause but they don’t really know how, and many are unaware that by trying to do good, they do more damage.
“They want to do good. They don’t want to be destructive. They don’t know which thing to buy. They don’t know which thing to use. So I think part of this is wanting to help it be simple for everybody because I need that.’
According to an analysis by Guerlain, a French cosmetics company, which has endowed 2 million bucks during this project, it’s expected that ladies can build 2,500 hives by 2025, and so protect a hundred twenty-five million bees. Women from Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, France, Russia, African nations and the Republic of Slovenia are going to be trained this year, and therefore the rest, from Peru, Indonesia and others will join in 2024.
After the shooting Angelina said she couldn’t take a shower for three days so that bees would climb on her. “If you have all these different scents, shampoos and perfumes and things, the bee doesn’t know what you are,” she said and revealed that they had to put something in her nose and ears so the bees wouldn’t come in.
Kim Marks 
Rhydian Choi