them from their skeletal context, leaving us with abstract figures
that urge us to guess what we might be looking at. Working with a
portable backdrop, natural light and a digital camera, Yuzawa made a
photograph of the caudal vertebrae of a porcupine that reminds us of
doves in flight; the pelvis and femurs of a springhare could be a warrior’s mask; a piece of a white pelican’s skull resembles a flower; the
beak of a parrot looks like an owl; and the horn sheaths of a springbok
invoke palm trunks.
Among the other animals whose bones are included in Yuzawa’s
menagerie are guinea pigs, penguins, leopards and ostriches. He chose
to photograph the complete skeletons of two animals, the two-toed
sloth and the rattlesnake, because they were bizarre enough in shape
to be unrecognizable. Through Yuzawa’s lens, for instance, the sloth
skeleton looks like it might be a brain.
Previous page: The horn
sheaths of a springbok (left),
and the skull of a crimson
sea bream (right).
This page: The palatine bone
of a grey nightjar, a type
of bird (left); an alternative
view of the skull of a crimson
sea bream (right).
