Chronicle Books
The Fairest Fowl: Portraits of Championship Chickens, Tamara Staples
Long before Martha Stewart gave chickens star status, our friend Tamara Staples was focusing her camera on them. She didn’t just take pictures of pretty birds, she produced portraits of individuals with unique personalities—they just happened to be chickens. We simply had to make a book.
Tamara’s beautiful portraits are complemented by location photography of the shows, details of the judging process, interviews with poultry farmers, and colorful profiles of each prize breed.
Feather quality, weight, combs, and crests are set off by typography recalling all-American county fair posters and 1950’s science textbooks. Black and white editorial show photography and anatomical illustration introduce and organize sections of portraits, with an essay by Ira Glass of This American Life providing his insights on “Trying to Respect a Chicken.”
Awards, Recognition, News
The Fairest Fowl was reviewed in Town and Country, Esquire, The Baltimore Sun, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, Men’s Journal, Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, Time Out New York, and Chicago Sun-Times, to name a few. It was also the third most popular book in West Virginia three months running.
