“I take the conventions from the fashion world and apply them to the underclass barnyard animal,” Rob MacInnis said to New York Times.
Some of the first animals he photographed belong to Angela and Frazer Hunter, who own a farm overlooking the Northumberland Strait in Nova Scotia. Mr. MacInnis knew the Hunters through a mutual friend, called them up and had a photo-shoot arranged. That was over five years ago.
Using a a medium-format Hasselblad camera, MacInnis takes both individual portraits of cows, goats, donkeys and horses and group shots which are inspired by Annie Leibovitz star-studded photos like those in seen in Vanity Fair.
"I began photographing farm animals because I was interested in using them as a metaphor for the fashion model," he told My Modern Metropolis. "I wanted to draw parallels between literally consuming them, which we do everyday, and the way the photograph 'consumes' its subject.
"Over the last five years, the project has evolved into more of a critique of photography's role in our society. I've experimented with different genres of photography; fashion, family portraits, documentary, narrative, and panorama, always using farm animals as the subject matter. I wanted to explore more how the camera manipulates its subject and constructs a reality, more than learn anything directly specific about the animals."
How'd he get them to hold still?
ReplyDelete