Emil Malmborg: Silent Fauna

A hauntingly beautiful tribute to the dead, honoring the quiet dignity of fallen animals.

From the publisher:
“We drive past. You’re there but we are not aware of you, we don't have time. You lie there along white painted lines, sometimes in the middle of the road. As if you want to scream ‘see me, I am here, I existed’. A broken wing pen, a red breast. Black birds circling. You bleed, stiffen, decompose. The process goes on in the midst of our daily life, sometimes for several weeks. We pass by. We hurry on. I stay.”

Since Emil Malmborg fifteen years ago began photographing wild boars, pigeons, seagulls, hedgehogs and other animals in roadside ditches, on raw tarmac and in dusty gravel, the world has spun faster and faster. In a fast-paced world, his images are an important reminder to stop.

– I have tried to make death beautiful, give the animals something of a dignity, and make visible a part of our Swedish roads that is otherwise rarely given space.

His project is idiosyncratic and well-photographed. The combination of the beautiful and the macabre is moving.

Author Patrik Svensson encapsulates the intention well in his afterword when he draws parallels to how we humans deal with death and honour our dearly departed.

Silent Fauna is Emil Malmborg's first book.