Erik Hijweege - Endangered Species

By capturing threatened animal species in ice, photographer Erik Hijweege creates confusion. The images set his audience thinking. Is this animal encased in ice the last of its kind, or is it simply preserved, left in stasis and immortalised until it can perhaps be resurrected? Hijweege, moreover, applies an archaic, rarely used technique to produce his images: the wet collodion process dating from 1851. The depictions of species like the polar bear, bison, gorilla and elephant seem like artefacts from another time – or our future. In this way, we become witnesses to a project that has far-reaching implications for our ways of thinking about extinction, preservation and conservation.