"NO SUCH THING AS SOCIETY"

Struggling to find a subject matter for my major project, then I stumbled across this image on the cover of a book. The reason this was so important is because I have grew up with my dad who has always had a shed full of pigeons, went/held pigeon meetings around me. This image was almost like the person was handing me the answer to my problem. Holding out something that was right there all along. Documenting what I know, and something that is a big part of my life.

Square format is something I hope to shoot in. also the use of people in the shot, something I also want to experiment with. As I intend to look at both pigeon collectors and also “street peckers”. Like the urban landscape of the image (behind the subjects).    

Initial Research

Below are just a few starting points to look at. I know the subject matter of what I want to photograph, however I’m not too sure on the style. I have given it some thought and at the moment the below seems like a good place to start. Looking more at street pigeons. My main focus is getting out and doing some street photography to capture the birds, in black and white, hopefully along the lines of the below images.

These images are just shots that I found when simply googling ‘pigeon photography’ I have put the links to the images along side.

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/21532948@N04/popular-interesting/

Looking maybe at something a little less conventional.  The idea of death, loss maybe. Really want my images to hold emotion in them but also have a deeper, more personal meaning. This really works in black and white. I feel that’s what captures the emotion. Also makes it feel timeless.

http://sickoftheradio.com/2010/12/13/photography-boogie-shoots-street/

I love this one; the silhouette of the pigeon flying is something I am aiming to also capture. I like how you can see the urban surroundings in the outer area of the image. This is rather symbolic; I also like how the bird itself is blurred and distorted showing movement and flight.

https://www.iphotocentral.com/common/detail.php/4096/16/6/305/3/0/0/10855

Harold Feinstein Pigeon Montage, Brooklyn

The reason I like this image so much is because of the darkness, its really intense and I feel like again to holds a lot of emotion. This is in the sky and the birds flying around. It kind of makes you feel like something is going to happen, almost like they are preparing for battle in a way (maybe just my silly thought but that’s what I feel when I look at it)