Chicken Beauty
Ernest Goh – COCKS, Chicken Beauty Pageants from anotherbeautifulstory on Vimeo.
Good stories are found all over the world. Thanks to modern day portable video recording technology to the rapid proliferation of the internet into every country at the household level, many of these stories are finally able to be seen. Most are free to share these stories with the rest of us around the world. Services such as Google’s YouTube and Vimeo make hosting video possible without the worry or bother of our own servers. Subjects as esoteric as chicken beauty now even find an audience.
Those of us with an eye to more commercial endeavors are also blessed with these hosting services, saving us the incredible expenses associated with owning our own physical computer servers as was the norm only a few short years ago. The “connected world” communication has opened windows into our cultures for new friends to see, many cultures for the first time. I never had the pleasure of traveling in Singapore, though it is certainly on my list. Beautifully told stories such as this one on Ernest Goh bring me as a viewer, not only first hand experience of Ernest, but also a background context of him within his culture. I am sure the reality of Singapore will be quite different first hand, but even these brief glimpses give me insight.
The stated subject of the piece is Ernest as a photographer. However this well crafted story goes much further with an interwoven story about chickens. Pretty chickens. Beautiful chickens in fact. The story has a great “fowl hook.” The look of the piece is just perfect, and the editing magnificently weaves it together. Expert storytellers, great editors, a great story, and magnificent visuals always makes for some serious eye candy. This one will not disappoint.
I will continue to post stories such as these more frequently from now on as inspiring examples of the best storytelling, so I have added the new category GOOD STORYTELLING.
From the video’s description:
Ernest Goh is an independent Singaporean photographer. Covering major events from the SARS outbreak in Singapore, to his 4-year project of documenting the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami in Aceh. Ernest’s interest in storytelling has led him to capture many stories for over a decade with his camera.
His latest story, puts an unusual twist on what is defined as a beauty pageant. Instead of tall, beautiful and effervescent supermodels sashaying down a runway. This beauty pageant is one for cockerels.
Ayam Seramas (also called the Malaysian Serama is a bantam breed of chicken originating in Malaysia within the last 50 years.) are a type of ornamental chicken, “They are not bred for consumption, but purely for ornamental reasons” as Ernest says it. Through his journey, Ernest was introduced to fifty-two-year-old Tuan Hassan or ‘Pukku’ to his family and friends, a a well-known Ayam Serama champion breeder, who shared his philosophies with him.
We were so intrigued with this story, and while we were not able to physically shoot the scenes in Malaysia, we managed to collect raw documented footage which was shot by Ernest and his crew during their travels, and put together this story.
Purchase the book here.
http://www.ernestgoh.com/store/{Credits}
Overseas Footage courtesy of ‘The Animal Book Co’{Special Thanks}
Ernest Goh
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