Animalier: Portraits of Wild and Wise Creatures.

The concept for this series grew out of my commitment to conservation and climate issues. Much of my work has focused upon or incorporates the landscape and the natural world, but this is the first series in which I have focused upon animals as the primary subject. My image making approach incorporated some historic concepts of 17th century animal portraiture in painting and sculptural mediums with my own modern photographic aesthetic. My background in both scientific illustration and in fine art photography informed the process from the beginning. The use of digital compositing and other editing techniques allowed me to create the scene I imagined for each portrait. Because of the gravity of our climate crisis it felt appropriate to use a dramatic presentation of the subject in each image. Therefore, black and white imagery presented in a film noir style was a conscience decision for this project. As was the decision to incorporate concentrated focus upon the eye/s of the subject and to de-focus other details in each image. I like to imagine that each of the wild creatures in this series are each holding us humans to account for our desecrations of the planet that we all share. Although humans are considered the most intelligent species on the planet--one has to wonder when peering into the eyes of another animal--are we really?