SomethinG FeraL
Leave it to the land, this is what it knows.
| Ludovick |
|---|
| he/him |
| 21 |
| Transsexual male |
| English + French |
Road worker, trucker's son and hobbyist photographer.Born and raised in a trailer park in the Canadian far-north.
Content warnings
Animal remains (bones, taxidermy, carcasses, hunting); topics of decay, decomposition, death in art; insects
BYF
Hardblock > softblock.
I don't mind spam likes/reblogs.
For more about me, consult my main blog.
(@cryptickludovick)
CREDIT/USAGE OF MY PHOTOS
Please do not repost my pictures to your blog or to other platforms.Do not use my pics as pfp/headers/in your website/etc.You may of course use them as wallpapers, room decorations, or for other non-public uses.
FAQ
What camera/lenses do you use?
My camera is a second hand Canon EOS Rebel T7. I mostly shoot with this 75-300mm lens or with the 18-55mm lens it came with.
Are you okay with mass like/rb?
Yes :)
Do you sell prints of your pictures?
I do, through the third party shop Redbubble, though I no longer actively update the shop.
If a picture you'd like to purchase isn't in the shop, feel free to send me an ask/DM requesting it and I'll add it for you :)
Disclaimer: I'm unable to sell pictures of taxidermy for copyright reasons.
My private propriety features in your photography, can i request to have it removed?
Most definitely! All my pictures are taken from a public place, and never feature people, which means it is generally legal for me to share the pictures I take freely. However, though the purpose of my photography is only to present the mundane in a positive and artful manner, I completely understand that someone may not want their house or belongings online.If you would like me to remove a picture of your propriety, please send a private message to @something-feral on Tumblr with proof of ownership (a simple picture of the house/thing that you have taken yourself will do), and I will remove it from every platform I may have uploaded it on.
Do you edit your pictures?
Almost never. I don't really do artistic photography, or even staged photography at all really. I'm very into the raw nature of candid photos so that's mostly what i do. On rare occasions, I will tweak the brightness a bit before posting, because I shoot with my ISO on manual and adjust it in real time, to get the darker/underexposed look that I particularly like.
What is your photography about?
If you've got time to spare hearing me ramble, the "themes" section of this carrd goes into a lot of detail on what I like to capture and why :)(warning, though: it's quite lengthy lmao).
Themes I explore in my photography
The forest/wildlife
I grew up in a region of the Canadian Far-North called the Taiga Shield, where I take most of my pictures. The Taiga Shield is composed of very rocky earth, permafrost, glacial erratics, and large, untamed coniferous forests.People in the Far North depend heavily on the forest, and as such, I was taught from a young age to respect it and every creature it houses, and even to worship it in a way, as the gigantic and acient thing that it is. Home to me is and will always be an all encompassing forest, evergreen as far the eye can see.I spend a lot of time in the woods, but the forest is forever changing, and I will never be done exploring. Which is why the most common theme you'll see in my photography is the forest and wildlife, which means, if you're gonna follow me, be prepared for a whole lot of coniferous trees lol
Death and the abandoned
Death is an old, old friend of mine. Much of my childhood was spent in hospitals, sitting at the foot of family members' deathbeds, until, one day, I became the last living member of my maternal family. That day, in between two prayers, my father revealed to me the name of the sickness which was my birthright. I learned then that I would never grow old.in the years since, I have made my peace with death. I even started to find beauty in it. In the way all things end. In the knowledge that where one thing ends, multiple begin. It's a theme I like to explore in my photography: the bones of animals in ditches, the rotting wood of what was once someone's home. The rust and the rot.I take pictures of junkyards, taxidermy, animal remains, falling apart buildings, rusting cars, etc. Please make sure this is something you are comfortable seeing on your dash before you follow this blog, or if not, feel free to block the following tags:#dead animal - #tw dead animal - #animal remains
Rural lifestyles
Despite what my photography may lead you to think, I did not grown up in the countryside. I do, however, come from a long line of farmers that ended with my grandparents, when they moved to the Far-North in the 60s, led on by the promise of the good money there was to be made in freshly founded mining villages.Growing up in the isolation of the Far-North, the countryside always felt to me like another world entirely, and it fascinated me. It fascinated me because even as the countryside grows older, generation after generation, farmers are always farmers. Everywhere you go speaks to the history of those that came before.Rotten barns that serve their purpose now as they did a hundred years ago, in every village the tall roof of a church that sits near abandoned post-Silent Revolution, crosses in front of elementary schools to remind us of the hurt that was done to our ancestors in the name of God and tradition. The drawl of farmers and its poor grammar, living on regardless, in their descendants that work the fields as much as in people like me, hundreds of kilometres north.
Themes I explore in my photography
The forest/wildlife
From a young age, I was taught by my family to respect the forest and even worship it in a way, as the gigantic, ancient thing that it is. Where I grew up, in the far-north, the forest is all encompassing, evergreen as far the eye can see.I have an honest fascination with the forest and every lifeform it is both mother and home to. The most common thing you'll see in my photography is kilometres upon kilometres of pines, and wildlife, big and small. I hike often around my town so when the queue is low I usually fill it with non-descriptive forest pics.My region has taiga/boreal forests, as well as permafrost + glacial erratics.
Death and the abandoned
I've had a strange relationship with death from a very young age, and as a result I find a sort of comfort in the dead and forgotten. I collect bones and other remains of animals which I sometimes use for staged photography, but I also capture death in its most natural state when I stumble upon it. Hence the content warnings in my info page.I also capture taxidermy, mostly in various museums across Quebec. I often capture all sorts of abandoned and falling apart things as well, mostly buildings and cars. I like vintage/antique objects and cars so you'll catch me posting that too.
Rural lifestyles
I come from a long line of farmers, so I have a soft spot for the empty fields and the falling apart barns. The region my family grew up in is infamous for two things : for its signature drawl, and for being "redneck and backwards".In the 60s, my grandparents moved much, much further north to a mining town in some isolated corner of the far-north where nothing grows, meaning that all I personally have to show for my roots is the familiar sound of the Jeannois drawl on my tongue.Still, I'm filled with a strange nostalgia when I look out the window at this misunderstood region and its equally misunderstood inhabitants, and so I make it my mission to capture its subtle beauty whenever I'm driving through.
Reality of the working class
I grew up in a small trailer in the Canadian far-north, raised by a widowed trucker and his incalculable hospital debts. Which means I have lived my whole life under the poverty line. Both sides of my family experienced poverty their whole lives, in different ways, and so I already knew from a young age that my destiny would involve steel toe boots and neon vests.I like to portray not just the struggles of the working class but also the quiet, easier to miss, beauty of this life that exists on the margins of society, at ungodly hours of the night, hidden away in trailer parks at the edges of towns.I portray the ugly junkyards, the trailer parks, the piece of shit trucks, the dirty boots, the manual work, the alcoholism, the underfunded streets, the shitty RVs. Some would say it's wrong to romanticize it, but I think there is much beauty to be found in the repetitive and the familiar.
Isolation and the far-north
This a more vague theme, but the most important one for me. It's even the one that inspired my username (something-feral).I grew up in a small mining town in the taiga shield, and for 14 years of life, I never stepped foot outside of it. Part of the reason why is because of the pure isolation of it ; my town is only accessible by two roads, both incredibly dangerous and 400km long. No gas station nor village nor rest stop for hours. Criminally underfunded, with nothing to see or do. The only times we ever left the north was once a year to get supplies we didn't have like clothing, equipment and affordable meat.The other reason being the backwards mentality of the rural folk. I grew up so close to the woods, living a lifestyle that could not exist without this proximity, that leaving the north causes me great anxiety now. We lived partly in the woods, we fished, we foraged, we hunted. We kept packs of dogs loose and bathed in the lakes. There was barely any radio signal or internet, most people don't have phones. Everyone knew each other and there was no need for "sirs" and "ma'ams". We valued manual work above all else and if your work clothes were dirty at Sunday brunch it only meant you were a good, reliable worker.I never knew the way we lived was worthy of comment until I moved south to the big city. And suddenly, for the first time in my life, I felt conflicted about the way I had been raised. I found it hard to connect with southerners ; they mocked my accent, and raised eyebrows at my camo shirts and got annoyed when i didn't get their culture references. Everything was fast and loud and cold and uncaring. I felt awkward and freakish and out of place, like something feral that should have never crawled out of the woods.I try to capture my life, the way I was raised, in images, and the way it clashes with the rest of the world as I explore more and more of this country with the newfound freedom of adulthood.