One of the 30-plus images shows a girl on a bed with animals that have been worked on by a taxidermist.

Another shows a lion wrapped in a plastic bag.

Australian Museum photographers “captured” artefacts in their environment before they were polished and put on display.

Albury visual arts co-ordinator Bianca Acimovic said the images told a story of how delicate the items really were.

“When we bring an object out to put on display we don’t protect it as much as we do when it’s in storage because we want to show it at its prime,” she said.

The exhibition is complemented by items from the Albury collection, still in their protective packaging.

“It’s to give that feeling of unpacking,” Ms Acimovic said.

She said she hoped the exhibition would interest people more than pristine objects.

“You might go to a zoo and see a penguin performing but sometimes it’s more interesting to feed it,” she said.

Ms Acimovic said images from the Australian Museum in Sydney were often distorted for advertising “but this just shows it exactly how it is.”