VEGETAL FAUNA, photo series, 2011-24.
I divert a subject from reality, in this case from flora (vegetables, leaves, petals, bud, stem ...), to show another from the imagination, in this case from fauna (swan, beluga whale, duck, lizard, goose, spider, albatross, crocodile ...). Within the same form, the imaginary is superimposed on the real, thus creating a double reading of photography and revealing a bridge between animal and plant.
It is not a simple ornemental gourd, a simple water lily, a simple black radish, a simple arum lily… These are elements that I looked for because I knew that they could embody animals. . As always, I am in search of the rarity which will be able to embody my idea: for example, to carry out the Béluga photograph, I had to find and observe nearly a hundred arum (a large white one). Indeed, the flower I was looking for must have a deformity likely to restore the profile of a beluga, in particular its melon (its broad and rounded forehead).
As usual, I used techniques allowing to restore my gaze on these plants: lighting effects, distorted white balance, image rotation, etc.
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Original version is here: https://www.corinne-thouvenin.com/faune-vegetale
Title: Elegant Bird
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2021
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A tulip bud and leaf are put together and photographed to look like a bird.
The tulip leaf is positioned to evoke the long neck of the bird. The stem embodies the beak. The bud represents the head of the bird.
The background evokes water while extracting the subject from reality.
Title: Couple of geese
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2018
Size: 20 x 30 to 50 x 75 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
Two small decoratives colocynthis are photographed to evoke an interaction between two birds. One of them has a shape similar to goose's silhouette.
The staging accentuates this similarity between birds and vegetables: the pose/position of these gourds suggests an animal interaction (one calls out to the other; the other pretends to ignore it), blue background referring to water (natural habitat of this aquatic bird); framing evacuating the shapes dissimilar to those of a goose.
Title: Lizard
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2012
Size: 20 x 30 to 50 x 75 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A lily pad, in its chrysalis, is chosen for its resemblance to a lizard.
The eye is the result of an optical illusion: a worm has eaten the leaf in a circular fashion. This results in a hole and a yellow ring where the leaf is dying.
Title: Crocodile
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2022
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A colocynth vaguely resembles a great cormorant, appearing to drift on rough seas. I cultivated ambivalences and paradoxes in order to stimulate our imagination, to question ourselves: _ Why is this bird drifting? Usually, a bird flies. It doesn't drift. Is he unable to fly (sick, hence the deformities? injured?) or does he refuse to abandon his brood? _ Was the nest blown away by the wind? Did a wave submerge the coast and wash away the nest? _ Is this the end of the storm or the very beginning? Is this a tragedy or an improvement that is looming? _ Were the nest and the bird swept away together by the storm? On the contrary, would this bird have found this nest, floating like a raft in the open sea? _Why is it deformed? Could he be sick? dying ? _ These white things in the sky, are they snow, ash, a luminous phenomenon?
Title: Crocodile
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2021
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A tulip bud is photographed to resemble a crocodile. I chose this Black Parrot tulip because, here, the outline of the petals looks like the teeth of a carnivore. This tulip is green because it is a bud. It begins to open, revealing the fringed edges of its purple petals. The eye-shaped hollow, the staging (triple lighting), the make-up (powder on the petals), the overexposure and the color balance finalize this crocodile incarnation.
Title: Big cormoran (sick).
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2018
Size: 20 x 30 to 50 x 75 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A small decorative colocynth looks like a great cormorant in profile view. The bird seems sick: covered with large pimples.
This vegetable is shown in front of a white background, photographed in the photo studio, then colorized.
![Béluga [fleur arum].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4e4ef5_e75eb15700e04a75b448cd2c64b2c2e6~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_421,h_630,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/B%C3%A9luga%20%5Bfleur%20arum%5D.jpg)
Title: Beluga Whale
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2016
Size: 20 x 30 to 50 x 75 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
I photographed an arum (a flower) so as to evoke a beluga whale in side view. I chose an arum for two reasons: its thick and discreetly wrinkled petal reminds me the skin of a dolphin; its yellow pistil, protruding and lodged in a hollow, is apt to evoke an eye.
Then, I embodied my idea thanks to the staging and the photographic technique: blue white balance to evoke water; dark background to evoke the depth of the ocean ; tight framing to hide elements without a interest; frontal view, side lighting and zone of weak sharpness to underline the shapes whose evoke this cetacean. The main difficulty was to find an arum with a deformity : the only way to represent beluga whale's melon (his broad and rounded forehead).
Title: Brooding Swan
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2018
Size: 20 x 30 to 50 x 75 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
This photography features an imaginary bird brooding.
He is embodied by a gourd (a vegetable) resting on a ball of yarn (simulacrum of a nest), in front of a pink plaid.
This bird looks like a swan and vaguely a flamingo. The swan is clearly perceptible: the lighting emphasizes its silhouette and sketches the outline of an eye. The flamingo is evoked by the pink background and the long neck.
Title: Prehistoric fish
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2022
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A tulip bud is photographed to resemble a prehistoric fish leaping above the water of a stream.
To underline the ambivalence of my subject, I chose to show elements which refer to the tulip (bud, stem, leaf) and elements which refer to water (tulip photographed in front of a blue painted canvas and superimposition of 2 photos of cloudy skies).
Title: Cormorant in the furnace
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2022
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A small decorative colocynth is staged and photographed to resemble a cormorant surrounded by flames and ash.
![Oie [coloquinte].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4e4ef5_ee0e8fecc2344b58a6dc0a34faa86533~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_650,h_435,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Oie%20%5Bcoloquinte%5D.jpg)
Title: Goose
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2018
Size: 20 x 30 to 50 x 75 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A small decorative colocynth is chosen, staged and photographed in such a way as to evoke a goose (an animal).
This subterfuge is possible thanks to several elements that modify our view of this vegetable: silhouette and pose similar to those of a goose, tight framing that focuses attention on the similarities, insertion in a setting that refers to water, the natural environment of this waterfowl.
Title: Dolphin exploring
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2023
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A plantain is...
Titel: Crawling snake
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2021
Size: 20 x 30 à 60 x 90 cm
Technique : photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A tulip (black parrot) is chosen, enlightened, and photographed for embodying a crawling snake.
The arrival of the snake is suggested by its posture, by its direction, by the blur and by the pattern of the fabric (lines and rhythm).
Title: Parrot perched
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2023
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A small decorative colocynth is....
Title: The duck is in the meadow
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2023
Dimensions : 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A plantain is ....
Title: Macaw parrot exploring
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2021
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A small decorative colocynth is....
Titre : Spider exploring
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2021
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A large red tulip with a yellow heart is chosen, staged, photographed and, finally, colored to enhance the resemblance between its stamens and a spider.
Title: Mischievous bird
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2021
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
......
![canard [courge].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4e4ef5_26c15f7fcf2d4a51b164ab24ad057436~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_634,h_424,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/canard%20%5Bcourge%5D.jpg)
Title: Duck
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2014
Size: 20 x 30 to 50 x 75 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A small decorative colocynth is presented and photographed to resemble a duck.
This subterfuge is possible thanks to several elements which modify our look at the vegetable: tight framing, modified colors, insertion in an architectural decoration, stem in the form of a beak, outgrowth in the form of an eyeball.
Title: Snake crawling near a ditch
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2021
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
.....
Title: Spatulated avocet.
Series: Vegetal Fauna
Year: 2011
Size: 20 x 30 to 50 x 75 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
A small decorative colocynth is chosen and presented for its similarity to two birds: the avocet and the spatula.
The background is like the duality of my subject: the tall grass is reminiscent of the vegetation where these birds nest; the pumpkin reminds us that this simulacrum of a bird is first and foremost a vegetable.