Chickens Dressed Like Napoleon, Einstein and Other Historical Figures
They came, they clucked and they conquered. Get the story behind these absurd portraits and how they came to be
- By Megan Gambino
- Smithsonian.com, May 18, 2012
(Timothy Archibald)
The actual photo shoot took place on the ground floor of Amos’ two-story loft in Emeryville, California. “We needed a studio that had a refrigerator in it,” says Archibald.
The photographer set up his lights, camera, his white backdrop and an underlit table with a Plexiglas top (notice: the reflections of the birds’ legs in the photographs). Days earlier in his studio, he had tested his lighting technique on a tomato soup can.
Meanwhile, Amos created an assembly line of sorts to prep the chickens. At the kitchen sink, she would remove a store-bought chicken from its plastic bag and pat it dry. Next, she perched the chicken on a large Red Bull can. “I literally went through every soda can at the grocery store trying to figure out which one actually fit up the cavity of the chicken the best,” says Amos. After the bird air-dried a bit, she would hand-sew, pin or tape on its attire. The headpieces were shot separately.
The stylist devised a way to sit a chicken on a suspension device to give it what looked like a vertical spine. “It looked anthropomorphic,” says Archibald. “It almost looked like the legs were supporting this body.” Obviously, all cans and wires were edited out of the photographs to achieve the freestanding effect.
Comments (9)
to the vegans. how can you really know these chickens didn't die from natural causes?
Posted by asfsd on August 21,2012 | 01:42 AM
I guess I don't get the comedy - or the relevance. These figures have nothing (so far as I know) to do with the history of chicken consumption. This is just in poor taste - more Daily News than Smithsonian. If you need more support, produce valuable content, not clickbait.
Posted by Ben on July 6,2012 | 04:17 PM
To the humorless vegan and Mr. I'm-ashamed-of-you: This trivial article comes under the category of "playing with your food" not "mutilation of the honored dead". Find something important to complain about. Sheesh.
Posted by Jeff Grossman on June 26,2012 | 12:10 PM
I love Smithsonian magazine- I grew up with it!- but have to tell you how shockingly offensive is this series of photographs. Would you make fun and amuse yourself with skinned wolf carcus or a racoon body? Would you do it with a dead plucked heron or a dead frog? No, because it offends our basic sense of respecting dead bodies of any species, by not making fun of them. So why do you think its OK to amuse yourself with a dead chicken body? For the first time, I'm ashamed of you, Smithsonian.
Posted by Helia on June 14,2012 | 09:29 PM
This is fabulous! Bravo for your ingenuity and creativity. Its good to know the Smithsonian hasn't completely succumbed to the PC whiners.
Posted by Coronel Sanders on June 7,2012 | 01:44 PM
This isn't really clever. It's downright tasteless and an insult to any vegan or animal advocate who reads your magazine. I recall that in the not so distant past, Smithsonian was simply boring. Now it's decided to become downright offensive.
Posted by george shea on June 2,2012 | 12:21 PM
sigh...I clicked on the headline because I thought they were going to be LIVE chickens!
Posted by Carolyn on May 24,2012 | 05:21 PM
Dare we call these photos "shutter clickin' good"? LOL!
Posted by Odyssey8 on May 22,2012 | 02:03 PM
Very interesting approach to animals and theatricality. Is there a Smithsonian cookbook in the works? SS
Posted by sondra on May 22,2012 | 01:10 PM