Brooks Dierdorff is a name that has been in my notes for a long time. In 2012, I saw his talk “Cultural Predators: Photography and Its Relationship to Hunting Culture” at the national SPE conference in San Francisco. His series Trophy has always stuck with me and I’m happy to add it to the site today. Beyond loving the idea executed in this project, I’m so fascinated by the dead animal pictured, literally and figuratively suspended. Its body floating or propped up, its killer having been erased from the picture; its existence prevented from disappearing altogether by the act of photography.
From the artist’s statement: The series “Trophy” deconstructs the prevailing visual codes within hunting culture by manipulating hunting trophy photographs found online. Erasing the hunter from the image reveals the conventions through which animals are objectified, and heightens the visual rhetoric through which humans attempt to dominate the natural world.
From “Trophy”
Visit artist's site: brooksdierdorff.com
Posted January 18th, 2017
