Familiar Territory

n the series Familiar Territory, farm animals are portrayed together with their owners. But instead of standing in a stall or on a field, they are pictured in the middle of people’s living quarters. The emotional connections that exist between animals and humans find multiple and careful expressions here and are also effectively questioned. The Familiar Territory photographs invoke the tradition of portrait and documentary photography as a way to investigate culture, habitat, domesticity, family and gender roles as well as our relationship to animals. Although the photographs are orchestrated and carefully composed, Jon Naiman has managed to capture a moment of intimacy. The color photos, made with a large-format camera, were taken in various regions of Switzerland, especially in the Bern and Solothurn cantons, in Alpine villages, on farms, in cities and agglomerations.