Specimens

A collection of insect and creature portraits collaged from multiple photographs taken of specific sitters.
My artistic intent with this portrait series is to challenge conventional perceptions of what portraiture is by presenting the photographed subject within a framework of the uncanny.
A carefully chosen silhouette of an insect is used as a stage to arrange/collage together parts of photographs shot by me, in a studio setting, of a subject: either myself, a hired model or personal acquaintance. I ask the subject to pose in a wide variety of positions and expression, with various lighting, the intent being to collect a broad library of body parts and facial expressions that I can then later carefully cut out and collage together into the animal I have chosen for them. Each is a portrait of both subject and insect.