Ask The Idiots recently caught up with a photographer who is taking the internet by storm with her artful photographs of New York City’s second most populous residents: Pigeons. Mrs. Mavis McPherson retired several years ago and only recently started photography as a hobby to brighten her days sitting and feeding the birds in the city’s various parks. She is very amazed at her sudden popularity. We sat down with her recently to learn more about her wonderful project.
“I just love the birds,” she said when we asked her why pigeons. “There are more rats, of course, but the buggers are too fast and twitchy. But pigeons, they’ll come right up to you and eat out of your hand. Well, squirrels will, too, but everyone takes pictures of them. And they smell bad.”
While we spoke, Mavis tossed some bread onto the sidewalk. A flock of grey and green and white and brown suddenly waddled over to us, all too lazy or fat or both to take flight the several yards to get the choice crumbs. “I found a camera sitting on the bench next to me one day. I picked it up and just started snapping. When I took it to the store to get the film developed, the nice boy at the counter told me it didn’t have film! I thought I’d wasted my time, but he assured me it was digital and he hooked it up to a computer and saved all my photos!”
Mavis explains how many of the photos brought out the individual personalities of the birds. Each one had a story to tell. “And when I said that, the boy’s eyes lit up and said he could put the pictures on the internet thing for me. So I let him.”
And the quotes?
“Oh those! Well, I talk to the birds for hours. They lead such interesting lives, you know, being able to fly anywhere and sit anywhere and get free food. Most of them don’t go far, actually. But they’re nice, and usually happy, so I pick something nice they said to me and let the boy put it on the internets.”
Mavis said she plans to take pictures of every pigeon in New York City so they will be immortalized forever. “I believe,” she says finally, looking wistfully at a small squab pecking at an even smaller cricket, “that this is important work. Everyone will see what the pigeons have to say, realize they have feelings and families, too, and maybe people’ll think twice about letting their mean children run through a flock of them.” She went back to feeding the birds, humming a tune from some old Disney movie, and we left her in peace.
Follow the pigeons on their twitter page @nypigeons.
