The NY Times Lens blog is featuring the work of photographer Tim Flach, and the photos are jaw-droppingly gorgeous.
I’ve always said that studying animals is like looking into a fun-house mirror reflection. The image you see in the mirror is distorted, to be sure, it’s not a faithful reproduction. But in its imperfection it reveals something fundamentally true about what it means to be human.
Flach’s photos are compelling because they are at once familiar and alien. His animal subjects reflect our own humanity back to us, reminding us that there are far more similarities among humans and non-human animals than there are differences. Still, it begs the question: do we rely on characteristics that remind us of ourselves in order to feel an emotional connection with another species?
Here are a few of our favorites – a panda, an axolotl, a pair of bonobos, and a chimpanzee above, – but click through to see them all.
