Allowed to Grow Old - Portraits of Elderly Animals From Farm Sanctuaries

There's nothing quite like a relationship with an aged pet--a dog or cat who has been at our side for years, forming an ineffable bond. Pampered pets, however, are a rarity among animals who have been domesticated. Farm animals, for example, are usually slaughtered before their first birthday. We never stop to think about it, but the typical images we see of cows, chickens, pigs, and the like are of young animals. What would we see if they were allowed to grow old? Isa Leshko shows us, brilliantly, with this collection of portraits. To create these portraits, she spent hours with her subjects, gaining their trust and putting them at ease. The resulting images reveal the unique personality of each animal without anthropomorphizing. It's impossible to look away from the animals in these images as they unforgettably meet our gaze, simultaneously calm and challenging. In these photographs we see the cumulative effects of the hardships of industrialized farm life, but also the healing that time can bring, and the dignity that can emerge when farm animals are allowed to age on their own terms. Each portrait is accompanied by a brief biographical note about its subject, and the book is rounded out with essays that explore the history of animal photography, the place of beauty in activist art, and much more.  Open this book to any page. Meet Teresa, a thirteen-year-old Yorkshire Pig, or Melvin, an eleven-year-old Angora Goat, or Tom, a seven-year-old Broad Breasted White Turkey. You'll never forget them.  

About the author

Isa Leshko is a photographer who focuses on themes of aging and animal rights. Her images of aging farm animals are much admired and have been published in the Atlantic, Boston Globe, the Guardian, Harper's, the New York Times, and elsewhere.

Summary

A moving collection of intimate portraits of farm animals who somehow escaped the typical fate of their kind and got to experience old age. These photos have so much personality, and Leshko supplements them with accounts of each animal’s life and her experience photographing them.

Product details

• Authors: Isa Leshko
• Assisted by: Isa Leshko (Photographer), Isa Leshko (Photographs), Montgomery Sy (Foreword)
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.04.2019
• EAN: 9780226391373
• ISBN: 978-0-226-39137-3
• No. of pages: 208
• Dimensions: 253 mm x 267 mm x 16 mm
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Humanities, art, music > Art > Photography, film, video, TV; Fotografie, Tierschutz, Zoologie, Photographie, Farbfotografie, Natur in der Kunst, Photography & photographs, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Zoology / General, Zoologie und Tierwissenschaften, NATURE / Animal Rights, Photo, Natur / Kunst, Fotografie, Literatur, Naturschutz / Tierschutz, PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Plants & Animals, Zoology & animal sciences, Zoology and animal sciences, Photography and photographs