Florian W. Mueller · CLIENT: Florian W. Mueller Photography
Ikarus is a photography series showing preserved bird specimens from extinct or highly endangered species. Each bird is portrayed in the manner of a Rembrandt painting, and the background of every portrait is a macro photograph of the feathers of that bird. The specimens were photographed in the ornithology collection of the Senckenberg Institute in Dresden, Germany. The title refers to the legend of Icarus, who flew too high and fell into the sea. Ikarus is the third part of a series collection called Neglect. The works are produced on ChromaLuxe material in limited editions.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Here are photographed specimens of animals, most of whose species are extinct. For this series Dr. Martin Päckert, the head of the ornithology section of the Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, he supported me very dedicated in my work.
In painting, the foolish or overconfident person is often depicted as Icarus. - Dimensions & Packaging
- Produced artworks are in the size 120 x 90cm, 80 x 60cm available. All strictly limited to 5/10 pieces.
- Tags
- animals, photography, endangered, extinct, birds, environment, portrait, Rembrandt
- Production Technology
- Digital Photography, produced on ChromaLuxe material.
- Design Challenge
- The challenge was to set the prepared birds in scene like in a Rembrandt painting. The background of the portraits is a macro-photography of the feathers of each bird.
- Project Duration
- It took nearly a year of research and preparation, two days of shooting and around 2 weeks of post-production.
- Operation Flow
- This is the third series of my collection of series, called NEGLECT. All endangered or extinct species.
I had the wonderful chance to photograph in the ornithology institue of the Senckenberg Institutes in Dresden, Germany. - Research
- I found that in the collection of the Senckenberg Institute in Dresden the most rare examples of extinct bird species are collected.
From a project before I had the contacts to the institute and they immediately said yes, when I asked to photograph the examples for my project. Then Dr. Martin Päckert helped me a lot with the taxonomy and the names and the origin of the birds and the preparations. - Inspiration
- We know the legend of Icarus, whose father Daedalus built wings of feathers and wax for himself and his son to escape from the captivity of Minos on Crete. The son Icarus became overconfident, the wax melted, he fell into the sea. Despite his father’s warnings.
Despite warnings and admonitions, we spiral into ever higher and warmer and warmer climes, and the crash is not far away. Okay, maybe that’s a bit drastic and striking. But all photographed birds are either extinct or highly endangered. - Image Credits
- Credits:
Leica Camera Germany
Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden
ChromaLuxe
Photography Zingst - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Florian W. Mueller, 2022.
Press releases are available in 1 languages.