Poultry Suite: Photographs by Jean Pagliuso

Jean Pagliuso is a world-class fashion photographer whose photographs of fashion models and film stars from Susan Sarandon to Sophia Loren filled the pages of Vogue and Rolling Stone for nearly three decades. But for her most recent work, Pagliuso trained her lens on a much less conventional subject: the chicken. An homage to her childhood in Southern California, where she helped her father breed and show Bantam Cochins, Poultry Suite showcases more than twenty breeds of chickens—from Sebrights to Spangled Hamburgs—as they have never before been seen.

Just as in conventional fashion photography, Pagliuso has applied her well-developed eye to creating interesting compositions while also bringing out each subject’s unique beauty and personality. In one photograph, a plump hen stares head-on at the camera through a mass of white feathers. In another, a proud red-combed rooster turns to peer curiously at the camera. Each portrait in Poultry Suite features a chicken arranged against a simple background, encouraging viewers to explore the animals’ anthropomorphic traits. The photographs are complemented by an accessible collection of texts.

Carefully designed by Shahid and Company, New York, and with reproductions of nearly fifty photographs, Poultry Suite impeccably applies the aesthetic excellence of fashion photography to form a true appreciation of the diversity of these birds.