Portfolio: Weird Science

It was its very plasticness that drew Diane Fox to photograph her first museum diorama in 1998. The sheer kitsch of an underwater scene in Ann Arbor, Michigan, stopped her in her tracks, prompting her to pull out her film camera and snap a shot in black and white. There was a fake frog, harsh artificial lighting, an improbable setting…it was unnerving and laughable and odd.

Later, when the image materialized in the darkroom, she realized that it was also mesmerizing and beautiful, possessing a strange attraction that compelled her to see more. Since that accidental bit of magic, Fox has traveled to dozens of museums in ten countries to explore the reality-bending experience of stuffed animals and painted landscapes and reflections on glass—a body of work she calls UnNatural History.

The daughter of a television director, Fox has had a camera in her hand since she was 12, and she now teaches design and photography at the University of Tennessee.

“It fascinates me, the dichotomy,” she says. “It’s a paradox, something that