Duncan Petrie, 2024 / 25, photography
To Pigeon-Fill the Sky is a photographic storybook about artificial intelligence, the creative process, and, of course, pigeons.
Returning to photography after a year-long hiatus, I struggled to match the quality of my old work. My new images were weak. They lacked dynamism, punctum, decisive moments. No birds filled their skies. I had spent a year remembering the best of my old images — rose-tinted — and had forgotten the patience and persistence that were required to make them. I saw photographs of miracles and forgot how long I had stood there waiting for them. I had forgotten that good art takes hard work.
As a software engineer and a photographer, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about artificial intelligence. Over the past three years, I’ve witnessed my two industries froth and fight over the glittering promise of AI — the shortcuts it opens, the expertise and experience it renders obsolete, and the slop that it burns into being. I imagined an artist who might forego patience, persistence, and hard work for an artificially injected decisive moment — why wait for punctum when you can add it in post?
To Pigeon-Fill the Sky is the story of that artist. It exists as a photobook, shot and edited in the summer of 2024, and as a website, expanded, distorted, and hacked together in the summer of 2025. It contains analogue photography, digital photography, real pigeons, and digital pigeons, shot in and around London, England.
Returning to photography after a year-long hiatus, I struggled to match the quality of my old work. My new images were weak. They lacked dynamism, punctum, decisive moments. No birds filled their skies. I had spent a year remembering the best of my old images — rose-tinted — and had forgotten the patience and persistence that were required to make them. I saw photographs of miracles and forgot how long I had stood there waiting for them. I had forgotten that good art takes hard work.
As a software engineer and a photographer, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about artificial intelligence. Over the past three years, I’ve witnessed my two industries froth and fight over the glittering promise of AI — the shortcuts it opens, the expertise and experience it renders obsolete, and the slop that it burns into being. I imagined an artist who might forego patience, persistence, and hard work for an artificially injected decisive moment — why wait for punctum when you can add it in post?
To Pigeon-Fill the Sky is the story of that artist. It exists as a photobook, shot and edited in the summer of 2024, and as a website, expanded, distorted, and hacked together in the summer of 2025. It contains analogue photography, digital photography, real pigeons, and digital pigeons, shot in and around London, England.
Duncan Petrie is a London-based photographer, writer, and web developer originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His work explores the presence of nature within human environments and imagines what the world might look like in our absence. Balancing humour and beauty, Duncan creates at the intersection of his many interests, blending curiosity with visual storytelling. Recently, he has focused on completing projects inspired by the indie or poetic web — an anti-corporate, deeply personal corner of the internet built from blogs, webrings, and experimental single-page sites. In 2025, Petrie exhibited in group shows at Getxophoto, the Photobook Café, and the Glasgow Gallery of Photography.
duncanpetrie.com
@probablyduncan
duncanpetrie.com
@probablyduncan