The Chickens of Cappadocia
The chickens are indigenous to the environment in which I composited them--Cappadocia, Turkey. In many of the images, the shapes of the chickens with their cockscombs and feathers are put into dialogue with similar rock formations.
In the Romantic tradition these landscapes often convey the sublimity of nature being surveyed by the lone individual. The unfamiliar, exotic quality of my selected landscapes creates the sense of mystery and surprise, with the chicken as the Romantic 'high priest.' Here, however, this human individual has been supplanted by the chicken, who is elevated to something approaching nobility and the heroic.
Besides the chickens' comical air, I rely on the universality of the chickens themselves. The first representations of chickens in Europe are found on Corinthian pottery of the 7th-century BCE. The poet Cratinus (mid-5th century BCE) calls the chicken "the Persian alarm." There are twenty-four billion chickens in the world now, making it the most abundant bird on the planet. Thus, the archetypal 'hero' has become, in these images, poultry instead of man.
Pat Swain is an award winning photographer whose work has been shown extensively around the world. She has been published in numerous magazines, including Leonardo (MIT Press), the New York Times, Digital Fine Art, Spin Magazine, New York Magazine, and Viking Press. She holds a B.A. in History from Mount Holyoke College, an M.F.A. in Digital Art from Pratt Institute, and an M.A. from Columbia University. She has taught digital imaging at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan
Recent Awards 2009
Silver Award: The International Aperture Awards 2009
Bronz Award: The International Aperture Awards 2009
Two Honorable Mentions: The International Photo Awards: The Lucie Awards 2009
Winner Pet Division: Photo District News Face Contest 2009
Winning Pet Photo advertising the Best Friend Photo Contest (Photo District News 2009
and ASPCA)
Babayan Culture House Artist Residency, Cappadocia, Turkey 2009
