Lauren Grabelle has aways photographed the liminal: The edge of civilization, the spaces between where human and animals live.
In her new photo series, “Deer Diary,” Grabelle invites us into that space once again — but this time, she steps aside and lets the deer take the lead.
Using a motion-triggered trail camera in the Montana backcountry, Grabelle captures what she calls a “collaboration” between photographer and subject. The images are grainy, infrared and startling — deer paused midstep in a clearing, antlers glowing, eyes flaring white in the darkness.
These aren’t wildlife photos in the traditional sense. They’re less about animal behavior than presence: what it means to be watched and to watch back.
By placing her camera along game trails and under barbed fences bent by repeti