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Have you noticed? Honeybee and beekeeping imagery is popping up everywhere these days. Most of the bee images I see are cliches. There’s the bee covered beekeeper – quirky and alarming. The ubiquitous vintage skep – representative of honeybees in a friendly, nostalgic way. Good old-fashioned scientific illustration – elegant and mysterious. And of course – cartoon honeybees.

It’s rare to find honeybee imagery in art or graphic design that falls outside those four categories. But every now and then something looks different. Congratulations to the talented folks at the New York Times Magazine for getting the shapes and textures of the hive just so in last week’s fashion spread, Killer Bees. I love the way the photos evoke clusters and comb and the sensual luxury of honey without resorting to visual cliches.

Thanks to my dear and thoughtful friend Carmel Zucker for knowing me well enough to guess correctly that I’d LOVE this.