Each of Ford's arresting photos delivers an unexpected sense of connection. Randall Ford's Dr. Doolittle talent is the ability to capture both what is on the inside and out. Each photo features a close up of a single animal that is accentuated by a stark, unadorned backdrop. The animals appear natural, confident, and almost humanlike in their poses as their pensive faces stare out beyond the page. Who knows if animals truly experience complex emotion and thoughts? Ford's imagery certainly leads one to believe that they do. If you love animals and are inspired by fine art, this book is a gem.
-New York Journal of Books
Just like high school, nature is full of class clowns, punks, drama geeks and stoics-and acclaimed photographer Randal Ford, whose work has appeared on the cover of Time and Communication Arts, captures these distinct personalities in Animal Kingdom: A Collection of Portraits. These stunning animal portraits will touch your heart.
-Parade Magazine
USA Today: 10 gorgeous coffee-table books perfect for the book lover on your holiday gift list!
What it's about: Another book of animal photographs? This one stands out from the herd. Randal Ford literally shoots portraits of lions and tigers and bears (and pigs and hens and sloths and horses and cows and chimps) in a studio setting against a white backdrop. (Many were brought to the studio from zoos.)
What's to love: These arresting, often startling images are somehow both intimate and remote, as if Ford were a 21st century John James Audubon, wielding a camera instead of a paintbrush. (Don't miss the fascinating stories Ford tells in the back about each photo session.)
- USA Today
Best Gift Book 2018. Majestic lions, and tigers and bears and more, photographed portrait-style. They sat still! -PEOPLE Magazine
Named one of 'The 30 Essential Coffee-Table Books of 2018': There's something amazingly incongruous about seeing wild animals in a portrait studio setting-hats off to acclaimed shutterbug Randal Ford for using this incongruity to imbue a zoo's worth of fauna with a degree of (often hilarious) humanity not previously seen. - InsideHook.com
There's something amazingly incongruous about seeing wild animals in a portrait studio setting - hats off to acclaimed shutterbug Randal Ford for using this incongruity to imbue a zoo's worth of fauna with a degree of (often hilarious) humanity not previously seen. -Inside Hook
Calling all animal lovers looking for a ferociously cool photo book for their coffee table-look no further than The Animal Kingdom: A Collection of Portraits from wildlife photographer Randal Ford. These stunning shots of magnificent beasts are truly wild.
- Maxim
Each image elicits an emotion so powerful it becomes impossible to walk away from the book without wanting to better the world for these animals. The intimate portrayals, which range from a lion cub with a punk-style Mohawk, to a Highland cow whose eyes are hilariously covered by a shaggy 'do, to a Jacob sheep giving the impression he just got caught doing something he shouldn't be doing-are a gift to the animal kingdom. They instill in the reader a determination to do better by them-as we should.
- DOWNTOWN Magazine NYC
