Tanner spent a lot of time with a man named Marcel Letellier, who, nearing 80, was the oldest member of the Biddeford Racing Club. Letellier's backyard was dotted by three small coops that, to Tanner, were filled with the same brownish-beige birds. But to Letellier, each was distinct.

    "He had names for every single bird in his coop," he said. "He was very closely connected to the inner and outer lives of the birds. He knew which bird was about to give birth and how to handle tiny chicks."

    "Visually that struck me — the juxtaposition between really weathered hands and burly looking men and watching them handle these shiny, often very beautiful, delicate-seeming creatures. And … they're cooing [to the birds.]"




posted 2241 days ago