Field Museum Sue by Hot Shot Colleen Plumb

One of our newest Hot Shots, Colleen Plumb writes, about one of this week's 20x200 editions:

Animals Are Outside Today

I began this project looking at "fake nature", wondering what substitutions for nature can satisfy in people. Looking deeper I began photographing live/real animals and how they can be a link for us to a world far from the reality and pace of contemporary life, as well as provide an intangible link to a deeper world of instinct and rawness.

This series of photographs examines the essence of our connection, as well as our fragmentation from the natural. I am interested in the increasing disconnection that exists between humans and the natural world. The work explores simulation, consumption, destruction, and reconstruction as well as notions of endurance and the reality of loss.

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With this series I seek to understand how the human connection to the rest of nature is often developed through assimilation and appropriation. I hope this work will incite contemplation about the lives of animals and generate dialog about resource usage.