The New York Pigeon reveals the unexpected beauty of the omnipresent pigeon as if Vogue devoted its pages to birds, not fashion models. In spite of pigeons’ ubiquity in New York and other cities, we never really see them closely and know very little about their function in the urban ecosystem. This book brings to light the intriguing history, behavior, and splendor of a bird so often overlooked.
While The New York Pigeon is primarily a photography book, it also tells the five-thousand-year story of the feral pigeon. Why are pigeons so successful in cities and not in the countryside? Why do they have such diverse plumage? How have pigeons adapted to survive on almost any food? Why are pigeons able to fly up to 500 miles per day but rarely do? How did Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner teach pigeons to do complicated tasks, from tracking missile targets to recognizing individual human faces? Why can pigeons see in the ultraviolet light spectrum, and why is half of their brain used for visual perception?
The second edition of The New York Pigeon, with its fresh portraiture and new essay from Catherine Quayle of the Wild Bird Fund, presents dramatic, hyper-real studio portraits capturing the personalities, expressiveness, glorious feather iridescence, and deeply hued eyes of the New York pigeon.
Select Press from The New York Pigeon (First Edition):
The New York Times: City of Pigeons and Yellow Cabs
The Wall Street Journal: A Rare Appreciation of the New York Pigeon
The Guardian: The New York pigeon – in pictures
Hyperallergic: A Photographer Captures the Unique Personalities of New York City Pigeons
It's Nice That: Andrew Garn's brilliant photographs of pigeons, the "gateway drug to nature" for city dwellers
Audubon Society: Pigeon Portraits Reveal the City Bird’s True Beauty
To celebrate National Pigeon Day and the launch of the book, author Andrew Garn will be in conversation with Rita MacMahon (Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Wild Bird Fun) and Catherine Quayle (Communications Director for the Wild Bird Fund) at POWERHOUSE Arena in Dumbo, Brooklyn on June 13th, 2024.
RSVP HERE
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Andrew Garn is a native New Yorker who grew up surrounded by pigeons and has photographed, rehabilitated, and observed Columba Livia since 2008, when he first exhibited photographs, video installations, and sculptures of pigeons at A.M. Richard Fine Art in Brooklyn, NY. Documenting the entire spectrum of development, including full-grown pigeons, newborns, babies and “squeakers,” he has grown to love these birds.
Garn is a fine art and editorial photographer whose work has been widely exhibited and appeared in the pages of numerous magazines including the New York Times magazine, Fortune, Forbes, Interview, Vogue, Vibe, Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel, French Photo, Elle Décor, New York, and Bloomberg. He is also the recipient of grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Graham Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the J.M. Kaplan Fund, among others.
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A partial preview is available HERE
Birding / Aviary / Ornithology / Pigeon Breeding / New York City
Hardcover, 8.5 x .425 inches, 160 pages, ISBN: 9781648230745, $39.95 USD or $54.50 CAD
High-res scans to your specification are available upon request; scanning from the book or lifting images from the mechanical file are strictly prohibited. Mandatory credit line: From The New York Pigeon by Andrew Garn published by powerHouse Books.
The New York Pigeon is available to pre-order now through our website and book retailers.
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