Stilleven met dood hert, wandelstok en kleed 1855 - 1886

Editor: This gelatin silver print from between 1855 and 1886 is titled "Still Life with Dead Deer, Walking Stick, and Cloth", and attributed to Horatio Ross. It's... rather morbid, isn't it? I mean, a dead deer staged like this. What's your interpretation? Curator: It's certainly provocative, isn't it? Ross presents us with more than just a hunting trophy. Consider the period - the height of Victorian culture. This image speaks to power dynamics and the control humans exert over the natural world, anxieties around industrialization encroaching on nature and the violence that underpins it all. Editor: The plaid cloth seems… out of place, like it’s trying to soften the harsh reality. Curator: Exactly! It's a domestic element juxtaposed against the raw reality of the hunt. It serves as a symbol for an attempt to control the wild or to sanitize the truth. This brings questions of gender. Where are we imposing the gender on who here? Is this something created by men to put on display or meant to show what happens in that culture's "natural order". Editor: So, you’re saying the composition itself comments on this tension between civilization and nature and the roles involved? Curator: Precisely. Photography in this era was also becoming increasingly accessible, used both to document and to create carefully constructed narratives. Ross isn’t simply recording; he’s crafting a commentary. What is “realism” really showcasing? It forces us to examine who is doing the controlling. Who decides the boundaries. How far do we impose human systems onto animals or the rest of our world. Editor: I never considered how deeply embedded social critiques could be in even a seemingly simple still life. I see a much stronger narrative here now. Curator: Art invites these deeper dialogues.