John Myers 'Blogella' Series - Giraffe, 1973

The photograph 'giraffe' was taken at Dudley Zoo in March 1973. It was cold in the giraffe house and whilst the radiators, set high on the wall of the enclosure, may have offered some warmth at body level for the giraffe they didn’t do very much for someone standing on a concrete floor.

I had to poke the lens through the bars of the enclosure in order to get a clear uninterrupted view and I couldn’t be sure the giraffe would stay in the same position. W.C. Fields famous quote - or a part of it – probably came to mind: "never work with animals"….
I took one photograph that day, the exposure was a 25th of a second at f.8. 

The giraffe was named Don and he was born May 1971, his parents were called Geoffrey and Grace.
 

The patterns on a giraffe are totally unique – no two giraffes are ever the same.

Read John's pieces on Mr and Mrs Seabourne, 1973 and his Slow Photography process

Each copy of The Portraits includes a 5x4" signed silver-gelatin print of Giraffe, 1973 and is available to pre-order now