Jeudi 23 Octobre 2014 10:51:51 par actuphoto dans Expositions

They are an unusual find, among the clutter of our internet-animal-pictures saturated world. For a start, here are no cutesy kittens anywhere in sight. These photographs literally stop you in your tracks, back you up, and first make you look, and then they make you really see these beings that share our planet...the first steps to a truly valuable inter-species encounter.

© Elliot Ross

Like Avedon and Penn before him, Mr. Ross removes all background noise, simply by removing all the background. He often does this pixel by pixel, so there is no context...no distractions from locales which would blind us to the presence...the particular nature of these creatures...the elegance of their morphology, the purity of their beings, and even the fun of their fur.

How much can a photograph teach you? In one of my favorites of Ross' deeply felt portraits, we are asked to consider a great white lumpen rabbit. We can really see it now, the rabbity-ness of the rabbit as it carefully, suspiciously eyes you over its shoulder, watching for the slightest aggressive movement. You feel the rabbit seeing you. It is curiously as if you, empathically seeing through those hooded eyes, are, for that moment, the rabbit. It's a wonderful reversal of position, akin to the shock you get from accidentally reversing the way your iPhone's camera is pointing, so that when you hold it up to shoot your subject, you find it's you.

© Elliot Ross