Theo Mcinnes explores the dying artwork of pigeon racing in The Fanciers
While most of us were glued to our couches after the pandemic, 2020 turned out to be an entirely different experience for Theo Mcinnes. The London-based photographer has spent much of the past 12 months crawling around in dovecotes and getting up at 4 a.m. to shoot sunrise races.
Primarily a documentary and portrait photographer, the common thread that runs through much of Mcinnes' work is his ability to get under the skin of British subcultures. "It's a strange little country that we live in, and if you look beneath the surface long enough, there are a lot of lovely people doing weird or addicting things," he tells CR.
The photographer had been planning for some time to shoot a series about the ancient sport of the imagination – also known as breeding and carrier pigeons. "There is something very beautiful about the term 'pigeon fancier' that I will always remember," he says. "It seemed so unusual – you just want to know more about what fantasy is all about."
People all over the world have practiced pigeon fantasies in one form or another for about 10,000 years. The sport first started in Britain during the Industrial Revolution and peaked in the 1980s when the Royal Pigeon Racing Association (RPRA) had 60,000 members. But those numbers have been falling since then.
The catalyst for Mcinnes' new venture, The Fanciers, came when pandemic restrictions began to lift last summer, and he discovered that the pigeon fantasy should be the first sport to return to normal.
The photographer's first day of shooting was particularly memorable. After speaking to the RPRA to find an appropriately sized pigeon rescue to use as a filming location, he finally managed to get in touch with the local race director at Folkestone, Kent.
“He let me know that 16,000 pigeons would be released in Folkestone at 6am the next morning. That evening we left London and drove to a hotel in Folkestone. At 4 a.m. when our alarm went off, we went to the liberation site to find four or five huge trucks full of pigeon boxes. It was the ideal morning for shooting, the conditions were perfect, ”says Mcinnes.
“Shortly after 6am a whistle sounded and suddenly all the birds were released. I remember my adrenaline going crazy and not knowing where to look with the chaos of pigeons flying all around you – it was a pretty amazing spectacle. Then, about 30 seconds later, it was all over and all the pigeons were gone. It was a miracle we weren't covered in bird droppings, which happened on later filming! "
In the months that followed, Mcinnes continued to document a number of pigeon clearings and the lofts the birds normally live in, as well as the dedicated community of hobbyists who keep the sport alive today.
This group of enthusiasts includes one of the photographer's motifs, Mickey, who had great success racing his birds from the south of France across the canal, which led to his being named "The King of Bergerac".
In addition to his impressive pictures of the breeders, Mcinnes has also shot a short film with friend and filmmaker Harry Zundel, which they plan to publish in the coming months.
While life in general is pretty boring right now, Mcinnes is hoping the series will offer a brief moment of positivity in people's days. "I understand that one of the main themes of the work is the disappearance of that hobbyist side to the imagination, which is a sad thing in itself, but at the same time still a celebration of something so magical." he says.
“Maybe the pictures can help track down the next and currently undiscovered generation of breeders? Who knows."
theomcinnes.com