Great and small

From a teacup piglet to a hoary pig, from a menacing owlet to a magnificent hunter-Gerrard Gethings' animal portraits show there's grace at every age

- Cal Flyn

Great and small

They say not to work with babies or animals, but the photographer Gerrard Gethings chose to combine the two for his latest project, young animals alongside their adult counterparts.

"There's a sweet spot after a few days when they can stand up, open their ор eyes, show that first bit of life

Baby Animal Match was conceived as a memory card game; players are asked to pair duckling with duck, owlet with owl, hoglet with hedgehog, piglet and pig - and so on, through 44 combinations. These fluffy, tousled, bug-eyed babies are, inevitably, adorable. But not always in obvious ways.

"There is a universal cuteness," Gethings says. “But that wasn't exactly what I was looking for. The baby racing pigeon, for example that goes through an incredible transformation from an awful yellow hairy squab to a beautiful iridescent bird that can fly 100 miles an hour."

Gethings, who is based in London, grew up in Lancashire, and worked for the photographer Terry O'Neill for a decade before striking out on his own as one of Britain's finest animal portrait photographers.

Previous projects have included human subjects - such as 2018's Do You Look Like Your Dog?, in which an Afghan hound needs to be matched to his windswept, long-haired owner - but increasingly Gethings finds himself gravitating towards animal-only work.

“With animals, I feel in control, more fully present. They don't understand language, but they understand body language and the way you are with them. With people there's more going on, a subtext.”