Larissa Summers

About

Strangers is a collection of work created through a collaboration between myself and fellow creative John Striepling.

The series title ‘Strangers’ is so named to reflect the concept of the depicted animals appearing outside their native environment, in spaces more familiar to humans than animals. The contrast between the reality of the photography and the stylized illustration is another introduction of strangers meeting. The element we most strongly attribute the ‘Strangers’ name is the way the animals are illustrated with fairly naturalistic features and proportions, but still have odd (and in some cases, unsettling) quirks about them. The animal we are familiar with is disrupted by these quirks, creating a feeling of strangeness in our usually familiar ideas and spaces.

Using Morse code in lieu of straightforward copy gives the audience an opportunity to interact with the work by translating the code to read a poem relating to the concept of each image.

My focus was on the illustration, while John focused on the photography. Together we would work out the Morse code. We met regularly for feedback during every step of the process.