Collection Obsession Yields Strange, Fascinating Photos | National Geographic

I think that when you become passionate
about certain objects then you really
want to keep on finding all that you can
it never ends
my name is Rosalyn Purcell and I’m known
primarily for the photographs that I
take in the back rooms of Natural
History collections my photographs
aren’t are straightforward in that
they’re not really manipulated except
for the light I choose which is always
natural light what I really want to do
is to wander through and see which
specimen sort of jumps out as being
readied up it’s picture taken
well photography certainly came before
collecting because the photography was
triggered by the sight of things and I
was brought up in the family where
people did collect they collected books
mainly but I didn’t really have the urge
to collect on until I visited a derelict
antique and junk yard
every piece of copper that’s left
outside near the salt water it becomes a
thing of beauty
I wanted them at home so that I could
use them as backgrounds in photography
not necessarily in Natural History
collections but for the other still life
photography that I was doing
the best light is brief when you take a
number of photographs there’s only one
or two in my mind that ever really work
and it’s as if the right tone has been
struck between the subject and the light
when it comes to getting a photograph I
certainly feel very greedy it’s really
important to get it right and then once
you’ve got it you sort of have it and
you don’t but the great thing about
photographing in collections is that I
have absolutely no no need to own
anything I’m a visitor and when I get to
take away are the pictures
you
you