We’ve Been Looking at Chickens All Wrong
These stunning portraits show them in a different light
Chickens, popularly, are scrawny and ugly and weird and scared and prim and silly and absurd. These are convenient stereotypes given the almost unimaginable scale at which chickens are mistreated for human consumption, and there is not a creature in this world in more desperate need of a PR makeover than chickens. They’re just as intelligent as cats and dogs, they’re incredibly social and loving, and (as these gorgeous portraits by two Italian photographers set out to prove), they can be majestic and inspiring and breathtakingly beautiful. And don’t let centuries of carefully crafted anti-chicken propaganda tell you otherwise.
Born of an idea by photographers Moreno Monti and Matteo Tranchellini, the art project called Chic!ken began as a photoshoot at a bird show and grew into a stunning series of portraits celebrating the majesty and beauty of these amazing animals. After releasing a hardback book of their portraits in 2018, the photographers began creating portraits of chicken couples for an ongoing project called “Chicken in Love.” And as these photographs show, a little bit of positive PR for these beautiful creatures goes an incredibly long way.
