The Term Between

Series comprised of 8 fine art prints that takes inspiration from Emily Dickinson's poem
'Behind Me - dips Eternity'.

Behind Me—dips Eternity—
Before Me—Immortality—
Myself—the Term between—
Death but the Drift of Eastern Gray,
Dissolving into Dawn away,
Before the West begin—

'Tis Kingdoms—afterward—they say—
In perfect—pauseless Monarchy—
Whose Prince—is Son of None—
Himself—His Dateless Dynasty—
Himself—Himself diversify—
In Duplicate divine—

'Tis Miracle before Me—then—
'Tis Miracle behind—between—
A Crescent in the Sea—
With Midnight to the North of Her—
And Midnight to the South of Her—
And Maelstrom—in the Sky—

The series is created from images I have taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A respectful (double) nod to the following:

1. Lucas Cranach the Elder
2. Hans Memling
3. Karl-Hemrich Lehmann
4. Ludger tom Ring the Younger
5. Rembrandt van Rijn
6. Master of the Castello Navitity
7. Piero del Pollainolo
8. Domenico Ghirlandaio



Natural History

Behind the Glass

Natural History is a new series exploring our peculiar relationship with animals, using images I have taken of the dioramas at New York’s Museum of Natural History.

I was entranced by these beautiful displays and respectful of the great skill that goes into their creation but I wanted to show how aloof we are from the natural world. We claim to love animals and yet we like them at a distance, we want to comprehend them on our own terms.

I was struck by how the idyllic scenes presented behind glass contrasted with the present reality of endangerment and destruction of natural habitats. In order to accentuate this detachment my original photographs have been digitally manipulated and re-presented as elegant, decorative images. I wanted to create a trophy, not dissimilar to the prized heads of a hunter, to show the desire to triumph over the natural world and display our spoils. Alice Walker observed:

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

We are faced with the extinction of huge numbers of species, many as a result of destructive human behaviour. Despite their educational and aesthetic qualities, the dioramas could be seen as sentimental portals into a world we would like to believe in, yet one that we are destroying little by little every day.

The images in this series are meant as both a celebration and a caution. John Burroughs, the American Naturalist wrote: 

I seldom go into a natural history museum without feeling as if I were attending a funeral. 

We have to hope the work of the world’s conservationists can stem the tide of our indifference to the passing away.

Golofa Clavigers & Pyrops Candelaria

From the series 'Entomology'.  Six fine art prints of each to be displayed as a set.
An echo from a childhood spent in the English countryside foraging for specimens to display on the 'nature table' in the garden shed. 
The Rhincoceros Beetle (sadly not to be found in West Sussex) is the strongest creature on earth, able to lift 850 times it's own weight.
Native to Thailand Pyrops Candelaria  is commonly known as the Lantern Fly.