Austin, Texas-based anthropologist, photographer, and artist Amanda Stronza creates beautiful memorials for dead animals that she finds on the side of the road, and then photographs them to share with the world. Her mission is to honor the animals and remind us to see the beauty in the discarded and mundane. She explains on her website:
For as long as I can remember, I have stopped to lift dead animals from roads. I cannot bear to leave them; the endless rush of cars, further assaulting their bodies, feels too cruel.
I was inspired by the naturalist author, Barry Lopez, and his book, Apologia. On a journey across North America, Lopez stops for countless animals, removing their bodies from the asphalt, lamenting the brutalities of the modern world.
I began creating memorials, not only for animals killed on roads but also for the ones I found on trails, and even in my own backyard. I look for soft, quiet places for their bodies to rest, and I adorn them with flowers, branches, seeds, weeds, and grasses. My intention is to honor the individual life; to acknowledge the existence they lived and lost. Too often dead animals are treated as objects, identified as "roadkill." But they are beings. They have feelings and memories, fears and follies, journeys we may never know.
I just love this project so much—the memorials are so simple and yet so beautiful, and really do capture the spirit of the animals that have died. They're such a kind way to honor and respect the living creatures we share this earth with.
Learn more about Dr. Stronza and her work on her Instagram and in this 60 Second Docs short film, and enjoy the beautiful photographs of some of the memorials, below, that Dr. Stronza has graciously given us permission to post.
