The World Taxidermy & Fish Carving Championships is the Super Bowl of mammalian makeovers and avian artistry.
The annual extravaganza draws the the best taxidermists from throughout the world, every one of them eager to prove their dead animal is the most lifelike. This year's event saw artists---and they are artists---from 47 states and 14 countries descend on Springfield, Missouri, with everything from rainbow trout to Bigfoot.
Yes, Bigfoot.
All told, over 500 creatures filled the convention center, and Norwegian photographer Helge Skodvin was there to take it all in. He had no shortage of materials---beyond the competitors, there were 145 booths brimming with the latest innovations of their craft including urethane body parts and glass eyes. But Skodvin focused on the creatures and their creators coming and going. Seeing a bighorn sheep getting fluffed with a leaf blower or a cheetah having its whiskers combed in a parking lot provides a surreal break to the realism taxidermists strive to portray.
“I like to see the animals completely out of their element," Skodvin says. "They look totally lost and vulnerable."
Animals are judged on their lifelike quality and accurate, dramatic poses (two pheasants forever caught in a mid-air squabble took best in show---along with $1,000 and bragging rights), but there's something creepy about it that intrigued Skodvin. "With taxidermy, there’s so many layers behind the images," he says. "Here’s a lion that’s been shot and stuffed and put on display. Is it nature? Is it culture? It’s fascinating."
Skodvin's series is equal parts macabre and comical. There's a tender intimacy in how contestants care for their creations, gently posing and preening them. But the magnificent lions frozen in place are reduced to a shadow of their once untamed life. One display left a particularly deep impression on the photographer: three mountain goats arranged in a group, with two lying down and the third standing nearby. Alongside the piece was a photograph of what appeared to be the same animals, in the same positions. "I thought, 'Wow, did someone shoot this picture and then shoot these three animals?'" he says. "That was disturbing."
The dichotomy is what keeps Skodvin interested in his unusual wildlife photography. Despite his mixed feelings, he says events like the World Taxidermy Championships exposed him to a culture that he's come to appreciate. "It was really good fun," he says. "You might think maybe they’re strange or morbid people, but they’re really very nice."
