Randal Ford remembers the first animal portrait he ever made. “Before I photographed any dogs or cats or tigers or lions,” he said, “I photographed a cow.”
A graduate of Texas A&M, Ford fell in love with photography when he was a college student, two decades ago. “I shot stuff for the school paper, everything from sports to news features,” he said. While working as a professional photographer after graduation, Ford was approached by DJ Stout, partner and creative director at Pentagram Design who’d previously worked at Texas Monthly, for which Ford would shoot more than twenty cover photos, with a surprising request.
“He saw all these colorful, dynamic portraits of people that I was doing and he was like, ‘Hey, do you think you could do portraits of cows?’ ” Ford recalled. The job was part of a redesign for the trade magazine Dairy Today. “I don’t know how well it was received,” he said. “They were these really artful photos—I remember one was of a calf posing in front a light pink background—for something meant for, like, Midwestern dairy farmers.”
But Ford’s images got widespread attention. “Those portraits went viral in the design community,” he explained. “But what I really saw was the ability to sort of humanize the animals through portraiture and see their persona.”
In 2018 Ford released his first book, The Animal Kingdom, which featured portraits of 150 creatures, including African cranes, giraffes, sloths, and tigers. His next book—Good Dog, a collection of portraits of man’s best friend—was published in 2020.
As he was dreaming up his next project, Ford recalled his first animal subjects. “I thought of doing a book of just cows, but it seemed a little niche,” he said. “But then I thought, ‘Why not do fashion-inspired takes on farm animals?’ ”
The result is Farm Life: A Collection of Animal Portraits, a book of gorgeous images that will make you look at horses, chickens, and, yes, cows in new ways. A majority of the photographs were captured in Texas. Ford, who is based in Austin, often drove to the farms where the animals lived and set up mini studios inside their barns. He documented the process on his Instagram feed, which includes videos of him shooting his subjects while cows low in the background.
The shoots often got messy, but sometimes for good reasons. “If a cow starts peeing, that means she’s pretty relaxed,” Ford said. His avian subjects, though, were the messiest. “Every bird I photographed was just constantly pooping,” he said. “At least with the cows, when they were about to poop, they’d lift their tails, which gave me enough time to back away.”
For such a dirty process, the portraits, all set against pure white or black backgrounds, are beautiful and pristine. “It’s fascinating to look in the eyes of other animals,” Ford said. “There’s something more there than what we at first see.”
Below are ten of the most stunning animal portraits taken in Texas for Farm Life, which was published Tuesday, September 10.
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Iridian, a mandarin duck. Ford traveled to a farm near La Grange owned by a woman who raises show birds, including chickens (see number six) and ducks (number eight). Iridian’s spectacular colors are a surprising and refreshing sight in a book dominated by whites, tans, browns, and blacks, Ford said. “This is one where nature does its thing and I just need to capture it.”
Randal Ford
Dutton, a Mini Rex rabbit. Ford was shooting some zebus (see number five) at a farm near Stephenville when he shared a frustration with the farm owner. “I’ve photographed every farm animal, but I don’t have one dang rabbit,” Ford said. One phone call later, a friend of the farmer’s arrived with Dutton. “It had the softest coat of any animal in the book,” Ford said.
Randal Ford
Bando, a multicolored spotted Longhorn. Bulls—intact male cows (castrated ones are called steers, for the city slickers out there)—were by far the most dangerous animals Ford worked with. “I feel more comfortable with a trained tiger than a bull,” he said. For safety, he photographed some bulls from behind a fence. Not so with Bando, who lives near Fort Worth and “was pretty chill,” Ford recalled.
Randal Ford
Denali, a bantam white Polish hen. “This one feels truly like a fashion photo,” Ford said of Denali’s portrait, captured near Denison. “It could be an album cover.” He set up a fan to give Denali’s feathers a sense of movement. “Most animals really like the blower because it cools them off,” he said.
Randal Ford
Swagger, a zebu bull. Don’t be fooled by his name or the intimidating stare. “He’s crazy small,” Ford said. “Like a third the size of a common cow.” And, perhaps luckily for Ford, Swagger didn’t have a Napoleon complex.
Randal Ford
Duke, a Denizli Longcrower rooster. To capture this image, Ford placed Duke, who, he remembers, was “a bit feisty,” on a platform above a table and rapid-fired his camera as Duke jumped down. “It looks like a superhero who just landed and is about to save the day,” Ford said.
Randal Ford
Lilly, a miniature horse. Ford didn’t have to travel too far from his Austin home to photograph Lilly, who lives on a ranch owned by Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies. (Proceeds from Farm Life will be donated to the Dell Children’s Foundation.) Her big, blond hair and bright blue eyes reminded Ford of a certain country icon. “It feels like a Dolly Parton portrait,” he said.
Randal Ford
Jasper, a gray mallard duck. “I always wanted to photograph a mallard, but I wanted to capture him in motion,” Ford said. Jasper wasn’t one to fly for show, so his owner held him on one end of a short table and lightly pushed him up into the air. “I had a split second to capture him before he came right back down onto the table,” Ford said.
Randal Ford
Randal Ford
Ford and Kotton, a Valais Blacknose lamb. “Farm animals have been essential to our ability to survive and flourish, but they’re not often thought of as beautiful or glamorous,” the photographer said. “It’s been a pleasure to see the passion behind these animals.”
Randal Ford
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