Photographer Claire Rosen: Birds of a Feather Series Utilizing Wallpaper

Birds of a Feather is a photographic series of portraits of live birds – from the common Parakeet to the exotic Hyacinth Macaw – photographed against complementary historical and reproduction wallpaper and fabric from the Victorian Era.

Gallery Catalogue of images from artist, Claire Rosen’s series, Birds of a Feather.

While searching for a toucan in New Jersey for a commercial photo shoot, Claire Rosen stumbled upon Bird Paradise, billed as the world’s largest exotic bird superstore.

What she discovered at the superstore would end up inspiring her series “Birds of a Feather,” a whimsical series of portraits of exotic birds photographed with graphic wallpaper as backgrounds. 

“They had so many birds and they were amazing,” Rosen said. “I really wanted to photograph them and not on black and white; I thought wallpaper would be better.”

Bird Paradise agreed to let her work at the store and Rosen set up a makeshift studio and brought along around 200 sheets of wallpaper from Waterhouse Wallhangings who allowed her to rummage through their scrap pile for samples.

The backgrounds in this series are selected to induce beauty, optical illusion and visual blending, the birds appear to belong when in reality it is a far cry from their natural environment. The birds mirror the careful, self-conscious poses of humans in an unexpected way. Posed, the birds anthropomorphize as we attribute human emotion and intent to their expressions. Includes Price List and Edition Information.

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Part 2: Birds of Prey