by Peter Clark
For February, the shortest (and sometimes coldest) month of the year, we sent out another great promo to warm up our clients. Printed by Modern Postcard, it featured New Haven-based photographer Adrien Broom and her engaging fox therapist image. I asked her to fill me in on the concept behind it:
I love playing with the idea of social interaction between animals and humans. This shoot was an extension of that idea of exploring the conversations between the natural world and western culture through constructed narrative scenes. It can be interpreted many ways, and I always hate to lay out a specific story line, but the gist is resembling a therapist’s office, and have people read into it what they will. The logistics of the shoot involved renting a fox from a local taxidermist; then I organized the rest of the set in the studio.
– Adrien Broom
Coincidently Jess Dudley, our lead producer, recently had the chance to partake in the search for a taxidermy fox to use in a local shoot. You’d think it wouldn’t be very hard to find a seated fox. He lent me his expertise on the subject.
Most people don’t want to make a wild animal look like the family pet, so more often than not you’ll find taxidermy foxes stalking prey or flaunting a fresh kill. Finding foxes in the seated position is rather challenging. It took ages to track one down. If you’re ever in a similar situation, do yourself a favor and just commission a taxidermist to make exactly what you need. But be careful—not all taxidermist are capable of expediting the drying process, so some animals may take over a month to cure.
– Jess Dudley
So unless you have a taxidermy emporium down the street or an uncle who loves to hunt and stuff animals, this is good advice! And if you have any good sources for renting or buying taxidermy animals for shoots (or your house), please leave them in the comments!
Let us help you Find Photographers, source Stock Photography, and Produce Your Shoot — or just reach out to hear more!