Can You Guess What’s in These Macro Photos? No, It’s Not Flowers!

I love projects that show beauty is everywhere, even in the most unexpected places. Mumbai photographer Jignesh Jhaveri shows exactly this in his recent project titled Indianis Dentris. As part of the Colgate campaign, this project shows what might resemble close-ups of flower stamens and pistils. However, it’s something completely unexpected – spent toothbrushes!

With Ogilvy India, Jignesh photographed the toothbrushes at The Refinery in Mumbai. The resulting photos are surely beautiful and, given the subject, also quite unusual. But the campaign has also ended up winning an award. It received a Silver Lion for Photography at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2026.

“Most people know they should replace their toothbrush regularly. Yet many continue using brushes long after they have worn out,” the campaign explains. “As toothbrush bristles age and deform, they begin to spread outward and “bloom”.

The idea behind Indianis Dentris was to photograph these “bloomed” toothbrushes as though they were rare botanical specimens. This is where Jignesh comes to the scene. He captured these images to appear beautiful at first glance… But then, revealing an important oral-health message.

How Indianis Dentris Was Shot

Jignesh shot the series across four different rigs. He used a Phase One XF with a 120mm Schneider macro lens, a Canon 5DSR paired with a Laowa 25mm f/2.8 Ultra Macro at 2.5x magnification, and, in between those two, a Laowa 24mm Probe and a Sony 90mm macro, both mounted on a Sony A1. Note, however, that the first photo he took was on an iPhone, the 0.5x lens in macro mode, pushed in really close to an old toothbrush. Just a reminder that your phone can be a powerful camera, too, if you have creative ideas.

The goal was to keep the images from settling into one look. The backgrounds behind each brush are hand-painted A3 sheets, thrown together in five to ten minutes with spray paint, poster paint, and brushes, then blown completely out of focus at macro magnification. As you can see in the BTS shots, there was also a bit of shiny net behind the subject to add more depth and more interesting bokeh.

It’s worth noting that no CGI, 3D rendering or generative AI were used in the creation of the final artworks. Just one creative idea paired with patience, skill, and careful lighting.

Take a look at more images below, and make sure to follow Jignesh’s work on his website, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

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