Artistry: Live Exotic Animals Guest Star in Stunning Indian Interiors

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, March 15, 2013, by Sarah Firshein

Photo via Flavorwire

Careers in photography are not for the faint of heart, and the German-born lenswoman Karen Knorr knows that a bit more than most: for her India Song series, she (and, presumably, a stable of trained handlers) positioned animals such as lions, tigers, and exotic birds in rooms around Rajasthan, India. The goal, according to the official project description, was to use these "sacred and secular sites to consider caste, femininity and its relationship to the animal world," using not Photoshop but live animals that "mutate from princely pets to avatars of past feminine historic characters, blurring boundaries between reality and illusion and reinventing the Panchatantra [collection of animal fables] for the 21st century." In Knorr's world, a dramatic rug unfurls beneath a crane, a tiger (below) reposes beside a wall of intricate mosaics, and it's hard to determine which is more arresting: these spectacularly ornate rooms or the creatures in them. Another look right here:

View the original article here