| By Charlotte Russell |
Asheville-based photographer Evan Kafka draws upon over 25 years of experience in commercial photography, where he primarily focuses on capturing human subjects, to create his latest series, Trophies. In Trophies, Kafka photographs the heads of live animals. He achieves the effect of isolating the head from the body through careful lighting, backdrops, and draping fabric over the animals’ bodies.
This visual technique references the concept of taxidermy heads, yet here the animals are alive, allowing the viewer to make direct eye contact with the subjects.
Kafka captures their movement in fleeting moments. In these milliseconds, animals such as peacocks, deer, and box turtles reveal human emotions like fear, joy, and confusion. All works in his series are the same size, regardless of the animal’s size, enabling viewers to look directly into each subject’s eyes and appreciate their colors, textures, and personalities.
Trophies have been exhibited at the Asheville Art Museum, the Spartanburg Art Museum, and various other institutions. Currently, Kafka is a featured artist at the Grand Bohemian Lodge locations in Asheville and Greenville, North Carolina.
Kafka’s work has appeared in major advertising campaigns, including a recent campaign for Apple’s iPhone 15, which featured babies, as well as on over 70 national magazine covers.
To view more of Kafka’s fine art photography, visit his website, fineart.evankafka.com. For his commercial work, go to evankafka.com.
PEACOCK 329 – 2023, Photograph – Archival pigment print on paper, 24×30 inches
WHITE TAIL DEER 618 – 2020, Photograph – Archival pigment on paper, 24×30 inches
“What I appreciate about the Trophies series is that the photographs are both strange and shocking. Are the animals alive or dead? However, when you examine them closely, you can see into their souls and begin to perceive them as characters, imagining what they might be thinking.”
