Touched by Fire

Description:

Text English. On 1 February 2008 at 5.00 a.m., a fire ripped through Deyrolle, the famous old entomology and taxidermy store in the heart of Paris. Its historic collections of thousands of butterflies and rare insects, stuffed animals and minerals, built up since it opened in 1831, went up in smoke, and with them the memories of generations of schoolchildren, dreamers and enthusiasts fascinated by their motionless beauty. Stuffed, mounted and classified, the specimens of a wide range of species conserved by this world-renowned institution were at best singed and at worst reduced to ashes.

This book features Martin d’Orgeval’s photographs which show the animals and insects that survived the disaster in situ, against a background of charred woodwork in the shop that had been their habitat since their ‘natural’ death. The objects and the location form an entire work, the result of a strange, unique process in which creation, conservation and destruction have followed on from one another.

Condition

Original red cloth (200x245mm). A fine copy in acetate cover.