The Calendar Pictures
Wild animals today are under seige. They are being sacrificed as we requisition the planet for our own species. Meanwhile, the orthodox wildlife calendar confronts us month after month with beautiful pictures of happy animals living in undisturbed nature.
In The Calendar Pictures, my intention is to counter this conventional vision that lulls us into complacency. To do this, I photographed dilapidated animal specimens which I took on field trips to their natural habitats. On these ritual journeys, I felt I was making symbolic reparations for wrongs done to animals by humans. I wanted to make classical wildlife pictures—but of dead, preserved subjects—to suggest that it’s time to attend to our nonhuman companions on the planet before specimens are all that remain.
Carol Selter
1996/2001