Between Feathers and Bars: A Glimpse into Captivity… for the #monomad challenge

Year 2020 | Canon 60D, 18-55mm / 50mm f1.8

In 2020, amid the everyday noise and the slow rhythm of a conditioned reality, my camera turned to a quiet yet deeply symbolic scene: cages. Behind the bars, creatures born to fly. In front of them, my lens. Between us, the act of observing without interfering… but with a firm intention to reveal.

This series was born from the urge to document the natural beauty that survives even in artificial settings; but also from the responsibility to question: What price do we pay for our comfort? What does beauty mean when it’s locked away?

Shot on a Canon 60D, I used both a 18-55mm lens, perfect for broader compositions, and a 50mm f/1.8, ideal for intimate portraits filled with emotional depth. The choice of black and white was deliberate; stripping these birds of their vibrant colors returned to them a universal language; one of texture, gaze, and the eternal dance between light and shadow. Because pain, like beauty, needs no color to be understood.
• In one image, a pigeon poses with the solemnity of a human portrait. Its feathers merge into the stillness of the background, as if accepting its fate.
• In another, young birds behind bars look at us, not with fear, but with a resigned stillness. Their large eyes have yet to understand what it means to live without a sky.
• In the third, a single face among many: one bird stands out, solitary, almost proud. The shallow depth of field turns it into the silent protagonist of a drama no one applauds.

These aren’t pretty pictures. They are necessary ones. They don’t aim to please, but to unsettle. Because art isn’t only about what you see, it’s about what it makes you feel.

What does a cage say about us? And what does a camera say when it chooses to look inside one?