Friday, June 15, 2012

Charlotte Cory's Cartes-de-visite; A Reinterpretation of Victorian photographic calling cards

Discover the extraordinary world of artist, photographer, novelist, journalist and playwright Charlotte Cory. Her photographic collages, skillfully reworking Victorian photographic visiting cards, resemble intriguing short stories, which invite viewers to speculate on the events behind the picture. By creating highly subversive images of human bodies with animal heads, she creates a vision of the nineteenth century, an exciting post-Darwinian alternative universe in which animals are clearly in charge.

Collecting Cartes-de-visite was a craze in Victorian times, called "cartomania." Millions of these faded sepia were produced and are now mostly worthless, found in junk shops everywhere. Cory combines these poignant images with portraits taken of stuffed animals from museums and her own collection. By recycling these dispossessed images and long-dead creatures, she gives them all a new lease of life.

You Animal, You! is an in-depth look at the world of Charlotte Cory. Highly illustrated, this delightful book also contains essays placing the unusual artist's work in context.

Charlotte Cory lives and works in England.


Alice in Red Velveteen Chair
Bognor Baby is currently on exhibit at the Royal Academy 
Colonel Fox is featuring on a new gin bottle, called Colonel Fox's gin
Crocodile, Smile, smile.....
Falstaff
Gentleman Badger
Little Heart
The  Champion


Courtesy of Charlotte Cory

2 comments:

  1. Oh, these are fantastic. I absolutely love Victorian photographs and anthropomorphize animals, so these are a fun combination of these two loves! That's great that they are in a book too.

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