Small Animal

by Amanda Tinker

In this series of photographs, I arrange details from nature collected from my family garden, children’s books, and vintage identification guides, behind large glass panels. Each photograph looks at the natural world as if it were held just for our observation, suspended far from any recognizable landscape. Nature’s small beauties, such as birds, butterflies, twigs, and petals become objects of contemplation, organized into layered configurations. As arrangements these are illusions. I am inspired by the “impossible bouquet” of Dutch still life, where flowers that would never bloom together in nature are painted together in lavish arrays.   

The 8x10” view camera used to make these photographs factors greatly into the work. The rather large piece of glass at the back of the camera, where each image is composed before exposure, offers inspiration. It is a projection screen for my interest in the early history of photography, particularly as a tool for studying nature. One can imagine an era just before the dawn of photography where views of nature stirred on the glass of a camera obscura. Nature had been transformed through optical devices giving way to a diminutive view; the landscape on a smaller, more intimate scale. This project, situated in the 21st century, reflects a more ambivalent, if not estranged, experience of the natural world. 

[click image for slideshow w/title & print details]

About Amanda

Amanda Tinker is a photographer working and residing in Philadelphia, She has been teaching the history of photography and 19th-century processes at Drexel University since 2001. Amanda has exhibited in national and international exhibitions. Selected exhibitions include the Photography Gallery at the University of Notre Dame, The Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, Lonsdale Gallery in Toronto, ON, and the Heilongjiang Art Museum in Harbin, China. In 2018 she was shortlisted for Benrido Atelier’s Hariban Award. 

amandatinker.com

From the Editor

Hello readers,

This feature with Amanda Tinker is one of those synchro situations. I was recently diving into Amanda’s work and learning more about her history, and the loveliness that is the Small Animal series, when I received a submission email directly from her. Good timing!

What I’m drawn to is the inherent mysterious simplicity of the series. Captured here is a purposeful stillness that creates a narrative between nature and humans. Although controlled and arranged by the artist there is also a sense of the organized chaos that is the truth of nature. Tinker’s series is poetic and meditative but also portrays a bit of unease, and I appreciate this dichotomy. There are also some nods to some of my other favorite photographers in this work but I feel Tinker does a good job of pushing beyond the comparisons. (I’m also a sucker for good platinum/palladium print so I really need to see these in person someday). Thank you to Amanda for sharing this work with us.

I highly recommend visiting Tinker’s website and dive into some of her other fascinating work. I’m specifically drawn to the poignant I am your garden series as well as the salt prints in To a Stranger.

–Blue Mitchell