Philip J Shannon: Hunters

How have images of a social activity so bound up with human instinct and tribal behavior, come to signify completely different meanings for two different groups of people?

Hunting divides us. Half of us can only see hunting one way; half can only see it another. Both viewpoints are flat and apparently impenetrable. How can the photographer lead the gaze through this fractured and contradictory screen and open up a depth and complexity of meaning?

My work deconstructs and then reconstructs the iconography of hunting in a way that foils preconceptions. Portraits of hunters in their ‘costume’ finery, bloody documentary of the hunt and sentimental paintings of country view are juxtaposed.

What results is an inside view of hunting that is uncomfortably human.