Image Analysis

Roe Deer - Docklands - London I

By Maslen and Mehra

This image portrays a small herd of small deer congregated on the asphalt in front of several buildings in what appears to be a major metropolitan area. The deer are made of some sort of reflective material and reflect a distorted image of the steel and glass world around them. There are no people around, which is strange for such a busy seeming place. There is a video screen playing in the background and lights on in the buildings, but no one is occupying the sidewalk besides these deer.

The lines in the sidewalk draw the viewers’ attention into the image and towards the buildings in the back and draw attention to the environment surrounding the deer. The poses of the deer make them look perfectly at home in their concrete forest, with a few even apparently grazing on the sidewalk. The warped reflections on their “skin” look like camouflage; as if they had evolved to live in the city. The grey tones throughout the image give it a somber and depressing mood.

This particular image is part of a series depicting animals in their once native habitats. The somber mood is reflective of the loss of these creature that were at one time could be seen where the buildings now stand. Humans are not present in this image, and most of the other images in the series, perhaps because we are not native to the niches we have built for ourselves over top of the environments that once were the home to so many amazing creatures.