I became obsessed with the object not just the beautiful photograph itself, and the color, the shallow depth of field, the detail that's visible, the wire you can see on the beak there that the conservator used to put this skeleton together there's an entire story here.

The ritual tells us that we are desperately zealous people, seeking mirrors that show our heroes as beautiful, youthful, and exceptional that we are fascinated with a form of death that freezes our illusions into permanent images, like Evita's embalmed corpse.