HOME | DD

Description
4 of 5

How can I photograph birds without anthropomorphism and without sentimentalising their existence both in a domestic environment and in my use of the bird as metaphor? Flying birds are traditionally used as symbols of 'freedom' (whatever that is) in the language of my culture.

How I can make images of 'pet' birds which show them as domesticated creatures without making them look like 'cute pets' and also without romanticising them as 'wild' animals removed from their 'natural' environment?

These thoughts have been running through my mind for about two years. Earlier this week, I was re-reading 'The Postmodern Animal' by Steve Baker, when the phone rang...

The caller was a vet who specialises in the treatment of exotic animals and he asked me if I would like to visit his surgery and take photographs of some operations.

When I looked at the photographs last night, my first thought was that they simply represented the experience that I had of photographing veterinary surgery. Was there anything more to them than that?

In my mind, the images meant a lot more than that. So I decided to make some of the photographs look surreal, in an attempt to bring together the questions I have had about how to represent birds/animals in my work and also to illustrate my own response to the situation I found myself in: making a record with the camera of birds under anaesthetic, revealing in the most extreme way I can think of, what I saw as their total loss of control over their own environment and themselves.

This is a small selection of five images from about seventy five photographs that I took. I decided to include a couple of pictures which show the rooms I was in and the equipment because I thought they looked interesting.

It's amazing how quickly animals wake up and run around again after the operations. The measure of anaesthetic used to keep the animal asleep is vital - just a little too much will kill them instantly and not enough would mean that they woke up in the middle of the surgery. One of the other things I did while I was there was to go with Roy, the vet, to replace the can of anaesthetic because he didn't have quite enough left for the goose.

Okay, so it was just a normal day for Roy. I just followed him around while he did a few routine operations. But it wasn't a normal day for me.

Description
4 of 5

How can I photograph birds without anthropomorphism and without sentimentalising their existence both in a domestic environment and in my use of the bird as metaphor? Flying birds are traditionally used as symbols of 'freedom' (whatever that is) in the language of my culture.

How I can make images of 'pet' birds which show them as domesticated creatures without making them look like 'cute pets' and also without romanticising them as 'wild' animals removed from their 'natural' environment?

These thoughts have been running through my mind for about two years. Earlier this week, I was re-reading 'The Postmodern Animal' by Steve Baker, when the phone rang...

The caller was a vet who specialises in the treatment of exotic animals and he asked me if I would like to visit his surgery and take photographs of some operations.

When I looked at the photographs last night, my first thought was that they simply represented the experience that I had of photographing veterinary surgery. Was there anything more to them than that?

In my mind, the images meant a lot more than that. So I decided to make some of the photographs look surreal, in an attempt to bring together the questions I have had about how to represent birds/animals in my work and also to illustrate my own response to the situation I found myself in: making a record with the camera of birds under anaesthetic, revealing in the most extreme way I can think of, what I saw as their total loss of control over their own environment and themselves.

This is a small selection of five images from about seventy five photographs that I took. I decided to include a couple of pictures which show the rooms I was in and the equipment because I thought they looked interesting.

It's amazing how quickly animals wake up and run around again after the operations. The measure of anaesthetic used to keep the animal asleep is vital - just a little too much will kill them instantly and not enough would mean that they woke up in the middle of the surgery. One of the other things I did while I was there was to go with Roy, the vet, to replace the can of anaesthetic because he didn't have quite enough left for the goose.

Okay, so it was just a normal day for Roy. I just followed him around while he did a few routine operations. But it wasn't a normal day for me.