Robert Zhao Renhui: A Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the World: Steidl Book Award Asia 2017

To what extent can we trust photography and science? Singaporean photographer Robert Zhao Renhui (born 1983) explores this question in A Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the World, which appears to be an authentic catalog of plants and animals but is in fact entirely fictitious.

Renhui’s guide documents 55 different animals, plants and environments that have actually been manipulated by man but do not appear to be, and examines the myriad ways in which humans are altering nature. Here “are curious creatures that have evolved in often unexpected ways to cope with our changing world, including rhinoceroses with barely visible horns and monkeys dependent on food handed out by humans.” Other organisms in the series are the products of human intervention, mutations engineered to serve various purposes, such as man-made gelatin grapes, genetically modified tomatoes and “unbreakable” eggs.

Robert Zhao Renhui (born in Singapore in 1982) has, without a doubt, put together a rather idiosyncratic documentation. He reveals animals, plants and environments that have been manipulated or even created by people. The degree in which the viewer can trust the photographs remains open. (LEICA)