We photograph our dog at home. We photograph the sea lions at the zoo. We even travel halfway around the world to photograph elephants and kangaroos, but what about our local cows, chickens, pigs and sheep? We usually only know about them from the steak on our plate, the sausage on our hand, the breakfast egg on Sunday and the warm jumper in winter. Farm animals. They lead a shadowy existence, they are usually paid little attention to or are even invisible because they are locked away and spend their lives in a very confined space behind bars. Yet they are lively, curious, friendly, intelligent animals, each with their own character. They deserve more attention and recognition!
A farm animal is an animal that is used economically by humans because of certain abilities or for aesthetic reasons. Wikipedia recognises four categories of farm animals: Food suppliers (meat, eggs, honey), by-product suppliers (wool), workers and helpers (draught, pack and riding animals) and animals as attractions (zoo, circus). Together with my photo-friends from Gruppe7 I took a closer look at some of the animals in the first three categories. We tried to depict the natural behaviour, the way of life or the tasks of the individual animal. The idea for the exhibition emerged from a photo theme in summer 2021:
“Farm animal – what use is it to me?”
