Description
You often hear that the pig is intelligent, but until I got to know Maciej Fiszer and his book about these animals, I didn't know anyone who was willing to learn more about these animals, or even befriend them. This book is unique on a scale far beyond Poland. It is unusual. Also by the way it was created. Maciej Fiszer photographed domestic pigs for 12 years (2004-2016), primarily in Greater Poland and in two piggeries in Ukraine, and it is important to know that these were not quick and fleeting visits to barns where "pigs" spend their miserable lives. On the contrary, Maciej is an extremely patient photographer who, before reaching for the camera, spent many hours in the "sticks" (a dialect term for piggery in Wielkopolska), got used to the pigs, became friends with them, stayed with them long enough for them to stop noticing his presence, and became one of them.
It was this long time together that contributed to many of Fiszer's "discoveries." He noticed, for example, that pigs do not like disco polo, that even they are irritated and disturbed when the sounds of this music from a wedding party reach them. On the other hand, Mozart, Beethoven and other classics have a soothing effect on them. That's why the artist took a radio recorder with him for photography. During his 12-year work on the series, he "messed up" two good cameras because they were not resistant to hydrogen sulfide. In one of the barns he once encountered an animal almost black from wounds and welts all over its body, because the breeder, i.e. the owner, was venting his aggression and all the failures of his life on the defenseless pig.
900,000,000 is a remarkable, empathetic and even affectionate story about the life of one of the supposedly most intelligent of mammals, who has the misfortune of living only to be eaten by humans. Later series - on cows and birds (living in the wild and on livestock farms) continue the photographer's animal interests.
The book, which is one of the distinguishing features of Maciej Fiszer, is extremely carefully published, it is simply a work of art. This is a credit to both the author himself, the designers from the Basterds graphic studio, and Pix.House of Poznan, which takes care of the entire project.