in almost every picture.
Unbeknownst to us, most every evening, animals of all kinds wander the forest, have dinner and socialize.
They move invisibly and effortlessly in that mysterious, natural ease with their surroundings that we as human animals have mostly forgotten. Where the animals exactly are at any given moment is difficult for us to know. They are just out there, somewhere invisible and hiding. Being curious and suspicious, we have invented a way of documenting their whereabouts with a camera that takes photographs rigged with motion detection. In almost every picture we see the self made portraits of deer and other small animals in the midst of their lives surrounded by nature; a reality that goes on without us and where we are not present, only new witnesses.
In these images we see animals that seem other-worldly, naive, child-like and even spooky, especially in
the images taken at night. Those glowing eyes are mesmerizing, like beacons. Sometimes the actions of animal and the camera are synchronized and we catch animal facial expressions that look like surprise or fear or curiosity. Their forms take on a certain trance-like grace and beauty. A glimpse of this secret activity can be seductive while also revealing of our own, human behavior.
The images are nearly guaranteed to capture a deer in almost every picture and often bring the viewer face
to face with the animal; a proximity we seldom achieve if we’re out stomping around the woods in our boots. These photographs are intimate encounters bridging the distance between us and what happens without us in nature. And who knew nature could be such a great photographer? The compositions find a fluent sense of humor in the randomness, a consistent style because of their purpose an depict and incidental drama that draws us in wanting to see more. We are watching like spies through a window.
In the end, we can’t help but share the animals’ intrigue. We consider what it might be like for ourselves
to be walking around minding our own business when suddenly flash, the world goes bright for an instant, blurring our eyes. We see the animals as we see ourselves. We are there too, poking around in things, hanging out together, grazing and mingling. We even imagine these lovable beasts out there, fooling around and having a good time, aping it up or just out for stroll all the while posing for another snapshot of themselves in almost every picture.
A KesselsKramer book. December 2004. Collected, edited and designed by Erik Kessels. Words by Tyler Whisnand. Thanks to Steve Harris, Todd Ashbaugh, William Black, Warren Engell, Leo Slansky, Scott Naselsky, Mike Gremind, Larry Woods, Joe Cawley and Jesse’s hunting page. Published by Artimo/ Gijs Stork, Elandsgracht 8, 1016 TV Amsterdam. info@artimo.net Distributed by Idea Books (NL) idea@ideabooks.nl and D.A.P. (USA) dap@dapinc.com Pre-press by Neroc Amsterdam. Printed in an edition of 2,500 copies in Belgium by Die Keure. www.kesselskramer.com / church@kesselskramer.com ISBN 90 75380 41 0
ISBN 90 75380 41 0