Feathered and fabulous: photographers show the overlooked beauty of chickens

Which is the world’s most stylish and photo-worthy animal? We could all think of one or two good examples, but for two Italian photographers, the answer is a surprising one: chicken. 

They created a unique coffee table book that features 200 eye-catching portraits of 100 types of chickens. The stunning photos in the book will make you believe that chickens are natural-born models.

According to its creators, Moreno Monti and Matteo Tranchellini, the book reveals “the sexiest and most beautiful chickens on the planet.”

“The chickens in this book are the protagonists and are photographed as top models because they had natural born talent,” The CHICken website mentions.

We take chickens for granted nowadays, but they are exotic animals with a vast variety of breeds, each boasting unique and vibrant plumages, behaviors, and personalities that showcase their unexpected and often overlooked beauty and charisma. The photographers wanted to showcase that.

The beginning of the CHICken journey

The book is a part of the CHICken series, a project that began in 2013 with a simple bird photoshoot but over time became a sensational photography campaign.

In 2013, Matteo Tranchellini was actively looking for a Concincina (a chicken breed) to keep as a pet in his studio garden in Milan. During his search, he received an invitation from a farmer named Geogio to attend a bird exhibition.

He went to the exhibition and finally met Jessicah, the Concincina pet he was looking for. On the same day, Tranchellini also realized how good chickens are in front of the camera. 

“Many of the breeders were worried that the birds were not posed according to the breed standard. Instead, what they didn’t understand was just how well the birds had done their homework, they were natural born posers,” the CHICken website notes.

He contacted his work partner Moreno Monti, and together they started shooting photos of the different chickens that were present at the Milano aviary exhibition. 

No special photography arrangements were made — it was just basic lights, cameras, and chickens. The chickens were neither trained nor forced to pose in a certain way.

“They were just themselves and had a natural ability to move in front of the camera,” the photographers said.

From CHICken to “CHICken in Love”

The chicken photos turned out to be mesmerizing. Matteo and Moreno received such a positive response that it encouraged them to launch a Kickstarter campaign, which fueled the development and sale of their coffee table book.

Over 2,000 individuals have backed the campaign and it has received $155,815 (€143,853) in funding. The pledgers not only get the photobook but also receive chicken-themed fine art prints, posters, postcards, a calendar, and many other rewards.

The success of the campaign and the CHICken book convinced the photographers that they could do more. They began traveling to national and international bird shows, to explore more, and soon they came up with the idea of capturing chickens in pairs.

“These wonderful animals began to naturally pair up regardless of sex, breed, age or nationality. This free and easy attitude reminded the photographers of the diversity that exists today in human couples, who sometimes find it difficult or impossible to manifest their sentiments because of cultural attitudes and taboos,” the CHICken website stated.

This eventually led to the creation and launch of CHICken in Love, a coffee table book featuring 60 chickens posing as fashion models.

We reached out to Matteo and Moreni to find out what’s next in the CHICken series, but they weren’t available to respond.

In a world loaded with AI-generated images and artificial enhancements, hopefully, this work will inspire many artists, photographers, and animal lovers to keep exploring the beauty that lies in the natural world. There’s beauty in the humble things in life — and we’d be wise to appreciate it.