Amy Stein

Amy Stein, Trash Eaters, date unknown

Amy Stein’s Domesticated pictures are like fairy tales. You know, in fairy tales it doesn’t matter if there’s really a troll under the bridge or if the house was made of gingerbread. It’s fun to think about anyway. These pictures are like that.

And I suppose it does seem unlikely that those foxes hung around while Stein set up the lights. Or that the bear was actually standing by the swimming pool, with the kid on the diving board, as Stein snuck up to snap their picture. On the other hand, the kid does look petrified, so maybe there was a bear.

As far as I know, Stein isn’t telling, although she does say that each of these pictures “represents a very long and considered process.” That could mean a lot of time in front of the computer, or a lot of freaked out kids running screaming from the pool. Either way, like fairy tales, these pictures are darker than they appear.


Amy Stein, Watering Hole, date unknown

(Not long after I wrote those paragraphs, I learned that many of the animals in Stein’s pictures are stuffed. No, not stuffies, but formerly living animals stuffed by taxidermists. Dead animals conscripted to play themselves in charming tableaux, sort of a cross between Madame Tussaud's and the zoo. Stein may be even darker than I thought. Too bad she couldn’t come up with some stuffed people.)

(At Paul Kopelkin in LA.)