Taxidermy and Photography Research

I've done some various research on other people who work with Taxidermy and take photography of dead animals/people. I will be looking at people like the Post Mortem Photographers in the Victorian era to the people who work with actual Taxidermy like Polly Morgan, who is Britains most refined Taxidermist

Polly Morgan

Polly Morgan creates art using an eccentric form of Taxidermy. She forms together animals a nd fungi into pieces to show the natural beauty of death. The way the fungi is coming out of the piglets stomach shows decay, but in a quite calm and soft way. The bird resting on the piglet also gives a feeling of tranquility, as it seems clueless and birds are often seen as angel-like.

The Fox entangled in the tentacles is one of my favorite pieces by her, and the birds lifting up the tentacles seem to be giving it a feeling that the dead fox is being carried to the afterlife. 

I also like this piece a lot because of how chaotic it is, however, it sstill obvious that it is a flock of birds. It has some fantastic composition to it, and the context the work is expressed in, the quiet blank room, gives it an even better effect. 

Post-Mortem Photography

Post Mortem photography was very popular back in the victorian era. It is the process of taking photos of the recently deceased like a typical family photo, giving the photos an eerie precense when you realise the people involved are dead. They are very well done, however, as most people have to double take before they're aware.

Marian Drew

Marian Drews still life contains dead, stuffed roadkill animals and fruit, using quite impressive compositions and elements to her work, like the lighting and creased blankets. The fruit almost draws away the attention from the dead animal, making the photos quite a shock factor when the animal is finally noticed. Eg. The wombat in the first picture is quite dark coloured, like the background, whilst the watermelon is light and stands out.

Meanwhile, the possum on the second picture is white, like the plate underneath it, whilst the vegetable with it is dark, and stands out.