Wednesday, January 21, 2009

squirrel portraits


what better way to dip one's toes back into the frothy waters of the blogosphere than with pictures of cute, fuzzy squirrels?

i've been pondering the tropes of editorial portraiture a bit lately, and i have to say, my hat was off to the photo editors at the New York Times when i read the recent article about serving squirrel meat at trendy restaurants in England ("Saving a Squirrel by Eating One").

there is no way to argue with the brilliant sequencing of the three photos in this article. the article moves through commercial photo clichés even as it moves through the animal's lifecycle: from cute overload-style stock photography (happy red squirrels vs. grumpy invading grey squirrels), to commissioned classic editorial portraiture (in this case, stuffy British gamekeeper complete with three-piece tweed suit, Wellies, hounds, and...dead squirrels), to minimalist food portraiture (portrait of the squirrel as...lunch). amazing.

3 comments:

erin jane nelson said...

hi. i just wanted to say thanks for the sidebar feature :)

-ejn

Anonymous said...

Glad your back. Just a piece of trivia for you. There are on average 10-12 cases of humans getting Mad Cow disease every year in the US. All of them come from people, mostly in Kentucky, eating squirrel brains. Later, and again glad your back.

johnny said...

love this blog :)