Figurehead

A series of black and white prints from a collection of ships’ figureheads, representing artifacts from a two hundred year span.

A series of black and white prints from a collection of ships’ figureheads, representing artifacts from a two hundred year span.

Exploring a nautical theme, I photographed a collection of ship’s figureheads where time is collapsed as we compare and contrast the superstitions and proclivities that two centuries of maritime culture had produced in a time before engineering and contemporary navigation techniques made such icons surplus. Unknown artisans toiled for likenesses made from wood of political, mythical, royal or familiar family members. Photographed here in a crowd breaks all intended tradition of isolation and uniqueness that these figureheads once held each at the prow of their own individual now unidentifiable vessels.

A series of black and white prints from a collection of ships’ figureheads, representing artifacts from a two hundred year span.

Exploring a nautical theme, I photographed a collection of ship’s figureheads where time is collapsed as we compare and contrast the superstitions and proclivities that two centuries of maritime culture had produced in a time before engineering and contemporary navigation techniques made such icons surplus. Unknown artisans toiled for likenesses made from wood of political, mythical, royal or familiar family members. Photographed here in a crowd breaks all intended tradition of isolation and uniqueness that these figureheads once held each at the prow of their own individual now unidentifiable vessels.