Beasts at the Border
The subjects—animal and human—in Amy Stein’s beautiful collection of photographs, “Domesticated,” find themselves at the uneasy intersection of nature and civilization. Her strange and discomforting—but also sometimes amusing—images capture man and beast on the brink of implied confrontation, sometimes separated by as little as a chain-link fence or highway guardrail. The profound vulnerability on both sides speaks volumes about the human alienation from nature, and nature as prey to the detritus and overdevelopment of humans. At their best, her subjects hold up a mirror to one another, out of place in each other’s worlds, highlighting a dichotomy that seems unnaturally polar and melancholy.
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