Jean Pagliuso: Poultry and Raptors

Mary Ryan Gallery is pleased to present a selection of Poultry and Raptors works from Jean Pagliuso, including two newly released images from the series. An artist who has built a career in fashion and celebrity portrait photography, Pagliuso has long been fascinated with picturing rare birds in the same glamorous light as Hollywood starlets, an interest sparked by a childhood spent breeding Bantam Cochin chickens with her father. Emphasizing the birds’ plumage, stance, form, and countenance on minimal backgrounds, Pagliuso ascribes a humanness to each bird she photographs; equal parts expressive and distinguished, they take on anthropomorphic qualities.

Integral to these works is the artist’s unique darkroom process. Pagliuso carefully applies a silver gelatin emulsion onto handmade papers before enlarging and printing her negatives, lending the images a striking, painterly quality. Utilizing a shallow depth of field, the artist pulls the birds’ personalities into focus. Full of life, the two newly released works from the series, White #23 and Buff #7 (originally photographed between 2008 and 2009), exemplify this body of work.