Martha Cattell Still lives, 2020 Anthotypes, turmeric, borax
This series of anthotype photographs show images of past displays featuring animals and the dismantling of the Natural History Museum in Scarborough. Photography, like taxidermy, freeze-frames a moment in time, capturing something that was once alive and letting it ‘live on’ as a lifeless version of itself. These images make this relationship between photography and taxidermy more explicit through the use of borax, used both in the fixing process of the anthotypes and as part of the taxidermy process. As the taxidermied animals will gradually degrade, so these anthotypes will fade over time, especially when exposed to the sun.