When Kevin Horan moved from Chicago to Whidbey Island in the state of Washington, he met a flock of goats and sheep. These friendly neighbors greeted him each day in front of his house.
“Their voices were all so different – sopranos and baritones, shouts and murmurs, rebukes and pleas – that I thought of them as not just a flock but a tight-knit group of individuals,” writes Horan in his recently released book Goats and Sheep. A Portrait Farm (5 Continents Editions, March 2019).
Experienced in portraiture, Horan decided to make studio portraits of the animals, capturing them in the same way he would upper-class country gentlemen and ladies. Horan did not pose his subjects. Instead, he waited until the moment the animal revealed itself to him in all of his or her glory.
“Horan’s portraits of regal Isabella, goofball Stanwood, imperious Sherlock, and ‘excuse me’ Jake, among other agreeable sitters, invite us to notice the variety, dignity, and personalities of these lowly farm creatures, who speak to us through the camera in a profile, a sideward glance, or a direct gaze,” writes the publisher in a statement
Kevin Horan is a photographic artist based in Langley, Washington, USA. He works on projects which look at animals as people, people as animals, and the planet as a very small place in the universe. He asks, “When we draw a sharp line dividing humans from the rest of life, we make the world a smaller place — for ourselves. Why on earth would we want to do that?”
Goats and Sheep. A Portrait Farm (5 Continents Editions, March 2019)
By Kevin Horan
With an Essay by Elena Passarello
Goats and Sheep is also available on Amazon
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