Wilder Mann

I came across Charles Fréger’s Wilder Mann book in 2014. He is a French photographer who spent a couple of years recording the remaining pagan folk festivals across 18 European nations. His premise was to capture pagan themes of fertility, birth, seasonal rites and rituals, “human to beast” transformation, and death. In many of these themes, mythical figures, which often appear as a blending of human and beast, are represented in costumes made of horns, bells, fur and bones.

What caught my attention was the scapegoat nature I sensed in many of these folkloric characters. I felt an immediate camaraderie with their odd freakishly shaped heads and bodies. As the designated scapegoat in my family of origin; I was continually blamed for the willful evil wrongdoings of others.

This is a small tribute honoring all the scapegoats that exist in every family.