N O V U S  O R D O
S E C L O R U M

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others“

This project started in sometime in 2011 ; I was experimenting in Photoshop and just trying out a couple of ideas and ended up combining a photo of deer with a American Civil War era portrait. I thought the result was pretty interesting, and decided to tidy it up a bit, then thought he’d need a companion piece. And so I ended up creating this series of portraits, showing military figures of a different time, when animals ruled the world. I came up with backstories and little details for every one of them, which I then wanted to make evident in the visuals, so as to make the portraits feel a bit more alive. For example, I felt like the sun bear’s expression was appropriate for someone who’d cheat at cards, so he has a little ace up his sleeve. Or the wolf, acting as the army’s mystic, who sports a long, Rasputin like beard. I really quite enjoyed doing this series, and was quite happy to be able to do a few custom pieces for friends as well.