Animals with Long Necks

By Jillian Locke

Grafton native Jenna Faden has an odd propensity ~ a magnetic attraction to animals with long necks. She loves them so much, in fact, she based her senior thesis around these unusual subjects. A 2008 UMass Amherst graduate of the Fine Arts program, Faden has created an entire body of photographic work with the help of her long-necked friends, the alpacas.

“I’ve always liked llamas…I think I like animals with long necks,” Faden confesses. “I’m drawn to awkward animals and the way they look and act around people.” During a routine drive to the grocery store, Faden came upon Hadley Farm, which lay about a mile away from campus. “There were alpacas, horses, donkeys…I went there to observe them at first, and didn’t bring my camera until a month later, so they were comfortable around me.”

Faden undertook her newfound mission with staunch determination, trekking out to the farm twice a day for six months. “I used all digital with alternative colors, and shot at sunset and sunrise, which were the times of the days when colors worked the best with lighting.”

The result was a warmly received showing for such an overlooked animal, and as Faden states on her website, www.jenndafaden.com, the showing “…was perfect, and I am looking forward to showing my alpacas anywhere I can. The world needs them.” Up until recently, the Black Diamond Café in Shrewsbury played host to a few pieces honoring her long-necked friends, and Faden is currently in the process of finding a new home for them.

But Faden hasn’t limited herself strictly to her alpacas ~ you may have caught Faden and her friend Jess Horton at local craft fairs last year, selling their works under the name “Pickled.” “We did craft shows for a year around New England. I was selling prints and things I knitted, and she was selling very colorful, quirky, hand made work.”

Currently immersed in the world of photographic portraiture, Faden is seeking her next inspiration. “I’m looking for my next thing to immerse myself in. That’s how I work ~ I become obsessed with something, within every medium.” Faden also paints, sketches, and dabbles in printmaking, but photography is without question her golden, long-necked goose.