Young Scottish photographer Robert Ormerod has had his ‘Doomen’ series, a project of portraits of pigeon keepers, published in The Guardian Weekend magazine. The images comprise a beautiful set of portraits, quiet moments of the men and women with their pigeons, a breed of pigeon known as Horseman Thief Pouters.

The images were shot in the east of the country, in the Edinburgh area, and show the men and women who keep their pigeons and use them to capture or entice back to their huts the pigeons of other keepers. The pigeons, an attractive breed, and sometimes made more beautiful through having their feathers dyed peroxide blonde, are released in the hope that another pigeon will find them attractive, follow them back to their hut, where the pigeon keeper, or Dooman, will sling the net and capture the new pigeon. It is then theirs. This article by Guardian writer Simon Hattenstone explains the pigeon story nicely.

The spread as it appeared in The Guardian Weekend Magazine:

Click here to see larger images from Robert Ormerod’s ‘Doomen’ series, and to see Robert Ormerod’s photography website.

And here on Document Scotland photographer Stephen McLaren has posted his photographs of Dookits, the huts built in gardens and wasteland of Glasgow, by pigeon keepers, to house their prized Doo’s, or pigeons. Click here to see Stephen McLaren’s photographs of Dookits.