Relocating “Stuffed” Animals

Photographic Remediation of Natural History Taxidermy

Author(s)

  • Stephanie S. Turner Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52537/humanimalia.9991

Abstract

This essay focuses on the remediating effects of photography of natural history museum taxidermy. How do these works refigure the apparent verisimilitude of taxidermied animals and their realistic diorama “habitats”? And how do they implicate viewers? Applying historian and curator Rachel Poliquin’s typology of taxidermy to a number of examples, I show how the “talkative thingness” of taxidermied animals — their tendency to signify in excess of their materiality — is expressed in the overlapping descriptive, biographical, cautionary, and experiential aspects of a number of contemporary photographers of natural history museum taxidermies.

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Author Biography

  • Stephanie S. Turner

    Stephanie S. Turner writes about extinction and animal representation in scientific and popular texts. She is currently co-curating an exhibit, “Animal Skins, Visual Surfaces,” at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where she teaches science communication.

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Published

2013-02-04

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“Relocating ‘Stuffed’ Animals: Photographic Remediation of Natural History Taxidermy”. 2013. Humanimalia 4 (2): 1-32. https://doi.org/10.52537/humanimalia.9991.