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Life After Taxidermy
Observations From an Untutored Eye
By Steven F. Niccoli
Capturing life in still life. This concept must consume a great deal of the focus, education, and aspiration of any artist. The way to encapsulate the essence of the subject with the meaning behind the artists' own perception of the subject.
For an artist, a successful image is ultimately defined by how well it conveys meaning, or evokes response. The approach to creating this image varies by artist. Laszlo Layton's Cabinet of Curiosities is the remarkable result of a non-conventional approach. His methods, the use of photographic techniques that would seem quaint and antiquated in today's digital age, and his subject matter, tableaus of dusty stuffed wildlife found in natural history museums, seem incongruous with the vital results of his photos. Still, somehow, due to Mr. Layton's vision and artistry, the essence of each subject is clearly there, shining through each of the images.
The Blue Morpho Butterfly offers a striking dichotomy, the image vibrantly defiant of the implied age of the media. The background of the media is muted, sepia. It has the quality of old photographs. One would expect to see the image itself fading from age. However, the butterfly retains a shocking vitality. Implausibly, the color seems to be leeching into the image in the foreground, even as the background fades. Acutely evocative of the energy of motion, the butterfly transfixes the viewer's attention, and it seems that the moment one looks away, it will spring to life and flutter away.
American Thorny Oyster offers a ghostly representation. The play of shadow and light delicately evoking the undulating motion of underwater habitat. Regal Thorny Oyster and Saffron Murex also capture exquisitely a gauzy underwater focus, while the faint blush of color in each shell hints at the vitality of the creatures once secreted in these spiny homes.
Mr. Layton's avian subjects offer a variation of delicate and fascinating representations. The Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock, Kakapo, and the Scarlet Ibis are defined in sumptuous bursts of color. They preen exquisitely from their humble perches. The subject of Lesser Bird of Paradise, although not as colorful, is every bit as arresting, emerging as it does from a diaphanous haze of smoky feathers. The Passenger Pigeon, presents a humbler, more stoic study. It's easy to humanize the spirit captured in this image, given the species' history of abuse at the hands of mankind, having been mercilessly hunted and ultimately slaughtered to extinction in the early Twentieth Century.
Jaguar is an engaging study of the quality and nature of camouflage. The subject and the surroundings are the same basic color, and, imaginably, of the same basic material. The likeness of the great cat is outlined, and defined by darkened gradations of a common texture. The whole quality of the photograph is reminiscent of a tea-stained memory, captured during some long ago safari. Easy to imagine the photographer transfixed by the frisson of recognition as this predator emerges from the background, lithely gathering form and substance from its surroundings.
If a successful image is defined by how well it conveys meaning, or evokes response, then, with his Cabinet of Curiosities, Laszlo Layton has clearly created a series of very successful images.
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