David R Miller

Unfixed/unwashed gelatin-silver prints

27" x 11"

A series of photographs of taxidermy birds, taken at Birmingham Museums collections centre. The taxidermy collection has been removed from view for some time, now stored out of sight, but still preserved. 

Where photography's usual function is to capture a moment, a fleeting fraction of a second, and turn it into a permanent, fixed memory or record, these photographs are designed to fail. By not fixing the images after developing, these moments are allowed to fade and oxidise. 

The taxidermy birds have been preserved, frozen in time, much like a traditional photograph (though three-dimensional). Through this piece I am setting them back in time, re-mortalising them, allowing them to fade and die.