“Spirits” is a photographic exhibition, taking place at the Zoology Museum, Cambridge, from Friday 18 July to 29 August. This project by photographer Alexandra Murphy documents the museum’s collection of animal exhibits, including its previously unseen store of spirit preserved specimens. Murphy has embedded the images in resin, to present them as a collection of photographic specimens. About this project Alex says, “I wanted to present the photographs in a way that would make them seem part of some zoologist’s collection – captured specimens on exhibit that attract both feelings of fascination and unease”.

“Spirits” is part of a long-term project, which visually explores various aspects of what psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud terms ‘the uncanny’: “that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar.” “Spirits” expresses the tension between the familiar and the frightening and also investigates the fear of lifeless objects coming to life.

Alexandra Murphy has been practicing photography for 22 years and working with video for 2 years.  She is a part-time photography lecturer who has lived in Cambridge for three years. She returned to London in 1998 after living in South Africa for 17 years. Her work can be viewed at www.acm-photo.com

The museum is open from Monday – Friday 10.00 – 16.45 and Saturdays from 10.00 to 1.00. The entrance to the University Zoology Museum is located in Downing Street, opposite Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ. Tel: 01223 336 650. www.zoo.cam.ac.uk

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For more information:

++44 (0) 7931 598 931

alex@acm-photo.com