These photographs of pigeons were taken by Richard Bailey to celebrate the importance that these birds played in Charles Darwin’s work.
Darwin wanted to prove that all fancy pigeons are descended from the common pigeon which in turn would help with his theories towards ‘Origin Of Species’.
Richard decided to photograph some exotic breeds and at the same time discover if he could come to love the pigeon.
As the project developed the photographs became ‘portraits’ of the birds and they took on an anthropomorphization. Some pigeons looked into the camera with an unflinching gaze testing the viewer in a malevolent manner, whilst others looked on benignly, almost compassionately. The different breeds took on unusual characteristics, some looked a little bit naive, others have a conceit about them, an air of self-importance as they puff up their chests and present themselves to the camera.
The beautiful photographs which show off the pigeons’ abundance of colours are available as limited edition prints and a book is due to be published.
