Birds

All of these birds were photographed in Armley. Most of them have been purposely imported, unable to migrate naturally or to fly freely.
As birds are the ultimate symbols of freedom, they are all the more caged because of it. A caged bird is a true captive, especially so since free birds fly above the walls and boundaries that land-bound creatures are forced to acknowledge.
Birds are linked through semantics to the other series in the work. Women are birds, prisoners are known as jail birds, and people - like birds - migrate and nest.
Among the birds here are, among others, an Australian Rosella, a quail, a Latino Indian Ringneck Parakeet (known for the gold cages in which they were kept in Calcutta in the early 20th century) and a conure - which didn't like being held and took a bite out of Brian. Brian has kept pigeons here in Armley since he was a boy, making his first pigeon coop out of the floorboards from the neighboring mill. He can trace his family back for 200 years here in Armley.