The tropical forest of Panama's Barro Colorado Island is a luxuriant community of plants and animals, pulsating with life and offering an astonishing view of nature's myriad processes. What does the forest look like? How do the activities of this forest's plants and animals create a community? "A Magic Web: The Tropical Forest of Barro Colorado Island" features 40 large-format color photographs providing views of the forest and its spectacular diversity of inhabitants, and many of the activities that give the forest its character and lend structure to its community. The photographs reveal the many ways its plants and animals compete with but also depend on each other; the contrasts between solitary cats and intricately organized armies of ants; the different ways plants struggle for a place in the sun, and the ways these plants attract, or domesticate, animals to pollinate their flowers. "Rainforests are fantastic, wondrous places," said photographer Christian Ziegler. "Step into one and you are immersed in a complex web of life like no other on earth. My hope is that people understand not only the beauty, but also the necessity to preserve these unique habitats that are under so much pressure and will be lost in just a few years if we don't act." Ziegler captured the images during 15 months of fieldwork in Panama and this vibrant exhibition gives visitors an illuminating glimpse of a tropical rainforest through the combined lenses of art and scientific exploration.

An Island of Forest

Ant's-Eye View of Orange Fungus

Broad-Billed Motmot

Landscape of a Creek in the Rainy Season

Leaf Miner Trails

Red-Eyed Tree Frog

Seeds and Fruits

Three-Toed Sloth and Baby

Toucan With Cicada