Photo TK TK: Head to Head: Nicole Hatanaka and Martin d'Orgeval

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Head to Head: Nicole Hatanaka and Martin d'Orgeval

I came across Nicole Hatanaka in the "Hey, Hot Shot!" Contenders for 2009. Her current body of work, Taxinomia, follows her exploration of nature laboratories and natural history museums. Taxidermied animals have been the subject of many photographers recently (See: Amy Stein's brilliant "Domesticated" work, Matthew Pillsbury's "Hours," etc.), especially in the context of museum dioramas on display and how visitors interact with them. Where Hatanaka's work differs is that she examines the process of categorization that occurs behind the scenes – how artifacts and animals get classified, organized, and stored and why specific choices are made to preserve some over others.

Meanwhile, Martin d'Orgeval came out with a new book, Touched by Fire, with Steidl earlier this year (I bought it from them directly and am sadly still waiting on my copy, so there might be some updates to this once I get my hands on it). This book documents the destruction of one such space, Deyrolle, a famous entomology and taxidermy store in Paris, following a horrific fire in 2008. The store housed thousands of animals and insects that had been carefully preserved and put on display – giving them each a bit of "immortality" until the fire reduced them to charred walls and melted cases, returning them to their "original destiny," as documented in d'Orgeval's images.