Elliot Ross was intrigued by the portrait of his late cat, which his wife had put up on the wall. The cat seemed to stare right at him, and he wondered whether it had consciously looked into the lens when the frame was made. What was it thinking at the time? In what ways is the consciousness of an animal different from that of a human being?

He turned those questions into a project. Working with creatures from around the world, he discarded their surroundings afterwards to make isolated and powerful portraits.

“The haunting portraits of the American Elliot Ross question our relation to other creatures and the ways we perceive the animal world.” — Manfred Zollner