Dummy Deer 2023

While staying in a friend's guest house in Colorado recently, I discovered a dismantled "dummy deer" in a corner of the garage.  One leg was unattached and he was leaning against the wall, full of marks where he had been shot at, I assume, by a bow and arrow.  Aside from the detached leg, the antlers were also unattached, so I put him back together, took him outside, leaned him against the garage door, and photographed him. Besides the marks made from the target practice, there were also lines delineating his heart and lungs, which I assume would be the "kill shots" on a real deer. 

I took the images into Photoshop, took them apart and then put him back together, emphasizing the marks made from the practice shots.  There was something sad and surreal about working with this not real, but still beautiful animal, knowing his sole purpose was in being a target for people practicing to kill live deer, aiming for the square markings on his side that would come closest to killing them. The dummy deer had such dignity and composure, seemingly unaware of his tragic purpose as a kind of "Judas"deer.