Stephanie Morris, I'm Mortality (Student)

This photographic series is an intimate look at the relationship between taxidermy and the nature of photography. Ultimately they are both an attempt at preservation. Why do we feel the need to preserve? Perhaps it is a fear of our mortality, or simply a fear of forgotten knowledge. Memory can become distorted over time. But a moment - a memory, a state of being - frozen in time and space, can perhaps achieve true immortality. The nature of photography is an abstraction of reality, much like how taxidermy is an uncanny recreation of what once was a true living creature. It is a distortion of the truth. The answer for our need for preservation and why we take photographs should be the same. This work is an exploration of our fear of mortality, through the embodiment of an immortal life after death.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.