Karen Knorr’s animals

Shot between 2003 and 2016 in various European museums and stately homes and in Indian palaces and temples, these images explores the disjunction between nature and culture, bringing the historical tradition of picturing animals squarely into the 21st century. In both series Knorr playfully combines technologies and genres, mixing digital and analogue, architectural and nature photography. Working in a predominantly digital format, images of interiors are combined with animal figures photographed separately and then inserted into the environment of the artist’s choice. The boundaries of the real are thus challenged both by this hybrid process and also by the incongruity of the scenes.
 This ambiguity goes to the heart of Knorr’s work and gives her images their force.