Caged Living – Owen Harvey
15 December 2012
“You see, I believe something goes wrong with Man when he cuts himself off from the natural world. I think he knows it, and this is why he keeps gardens and window boxes, and house plants, and dogs and cats and budgerigars.”
Peter Scott
18 December 1965
in ‘The Animal Anthology’, 1967
All photos © Owen Harvey
Owen Harvey’s ‘Caged Living’ acts as a set of reflections on the simplest of human-animal relations. The flesh that unites us, in its indistinguishable texture and colour, appears as a powerful reminder of our shared condition. The confrontations of two images (Harvey calls them “couplets”) emphasise the absurdities of our relationships with other animals, and this seems to me to be a very effective strategy for introducing the subject. Although the rest of Harvey’s photographic work does not concentrate on the animal subject entirely, I must say this short essay is very successful for its vitality and sensibility.
Owen Harvey’s website: driveaway.tumblr.com
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