Natural History Museum, Los Angeles, from dangerpaws

From Annie Sollinger (dangerpaws) comes the third in our Guest Blogger series: Dioramas! Enjoy. —along


Fotologgers, by and large being cultural types, love museums. The group log museum_world is testament to this: clicking through the archives offers myriad windows on the collections of museums around the world—
showcasing art, science, religious artifacts, ethnic histories, you name it. One appeal of shooting in galleries like this (sometimes even against the rules!) is that museum lighting is so perfect—a welcome respite for those of us who are used to making do with whatever light is available. Of all the museum exhibits I’ve seen, the ones I love most are the habitat dioramas you can find in hundreds of institutions worldwide—though the ones nearest and dearest to me live at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City. They all photograph so well!

American Museum of Natural History, New York, from gardengal


From nihilist

More Dioramas!

these images, especially nihilist’s black-and-white picture, remind me of the extraordinary diorama photos of Hiroshi Sugimoto, who had this to say on the subject:

“When I first arrived in New York in 1974, I visited many of the city’s tourist sites, one of which was the American Museum of Natural History. I made a curious discovery while looking at the exhibition of animal dioramas: the stuffed animals positioned before painted backdrops looked utterly fake, yet by taking a quick peek with one eye closed, all perspective vanished, and suddenly they looked very real. I had found a way to see the world as a camera does. However fake the subject, once photographed, it’s as good as real.”

American Museum of Natural History, from dangerpaws

Now you can bring the beloved dioramas of the AMNH home with you, in the recent book Windows on Nature, by Stephen Quinn, who’s worked at the Museum since 1974. It’s full of surprises. Photos of Carl Akeley (who constructed the world’s first habitat diorama, in 1889) in bandages after being mauled in the field by an elephant and a leopard are even better than some of the modern color studies of selected habitats. For those willing to suspend disbelief long enough, there’s a section on the elaborate taxidermy and scenic painting as well. I learned that none other than the photographic pioneer Louis Daguerre, inventor of the daguerrotype, coined the term “diorama” (translated roughly from the Greek as “to see through”) and even copyrighted it, in 1822. That’s fitting encouragement for us photographers to keep shooting.

Please feel free to post a link in the comments to your favorite diorama photo on Fotolog, and we’ll add it to the gallery here. —dangerpaws

American Museum of Natural History, from meiwen

American Museum of Natural History, from nihilist

American Museum of Natural History, from nihilist, on museum_world

American Museum of Natural History, from gardengal

Natural History Museum, from dangerpaws, on museum_world

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 9:40 pm by along and is filed under Guest blogger.

9 Responses to “Wild Kingdoms”

palmea @ 2007-03-26 10:47:23 AM says:

i love how weird dioramas look in person.
and how true they look in pictures.

thanks for noticing and finding these photographs!

konita........ @ 2007-03-26 04:47:35 PM says:

wenu al fin con mi log esta fotito me la tome en valdivia corral que la pase bn con mi family jiiijiii

saluditos pa too y no posteen en mala

y ahora a bajar otra jotito

ribena @ 2007-03-26 09:11:44 PM says:

I can’t get over the fact that Akeley was mauled by an elephant *and* a leopard.

Like palmea, I’m won over by how real the dioramas look at second hand. That extra level of distance allows us to, well, believe.

jkh_22 @ 2007-03-27 02:57:26 PM says:

oooh, i remember that shot of gardengal’s of the bird; i thought it was a real bird, and then, loved it even more when i found out it wasn’t. (i think she’s supposed to send me a print one of these days, hint hint!) that last shot of yours carries some tension between the real and the make believe…and i ask myself, which is which? nice work.

dangerpaws @ 2007-03-28 07:26:54 PM says:

thanks ladies..
wooo lookit this, it’s lovely:
http://www.fotolog.com/museum_world/30465508

margaritaa @ 2007-04-04 08:05:27 PM says:

copadoo esstoo todavia no lo entiendo mui bienn peor me gustaan mucho las fortoss
chau

vale @ 2007-04-04 08:42:35 PM says:

ahahhhh me gustan las fotos

sii

tan padres.!!1

slds

(O_____X)

rita @ 2007-04-04 08:53:10 PM says:

hola como estas

tatizz @ 2007-04-07 09:40:12 PM says:

q lindaz jotoz
zon mui hermozaz
pazee
ahi ze ven
chauz =* (L)