Long Ago and Far Away: Rory Carnegie

The photographs in show in the English Tea Room are by the acclaimed photographer, Rory Carnegie. They form a special edition of animal portraits originally shown in the exhibition Long Ago and Far Away and which are now shown to celebrate the continuing legacy of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book in the 125th anniversary of its publication.

In his exhibition Carnegie made each animal portrait in his studio in Oxford or, where transportation was impractical, in specially-constructed sets close to their homes. The sets were often left for a week or more in their environment until the animal was conformable and could be photographed against a plain white background. Each portrait was then layered against landscape photographs made in Port Meadow in Oxford. Though incongruous today, Carnegie wanted us to imagine each animal in our own familiar landscape, landscapes that long ago provided sanctuary for wolves, tigers and even rhinoceros. Like Mowgli, abandoned in the jungle and brought up by wolves, Carnegie creates an unlikely environment, but one in which his animals seem perfectly at home. Like the book, these individual portraits can be seen as fables of man’s connection with the natural world.