It is a terrific title for an absurdist short story – identical twin boys kneeling next to their great grandmother's hen in the Estonian countryside – but is in fact a photograph, one of four this year shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing prize.
The National Portrait Gallery on Thursday revealed the list for its annual photographic portrait award, a prize that this year saw 4,193 submissions entered by 1,793 photographers. All four works explore childhood in some way.
Birgit Püve lives and works in Tallinn, Estonia, and is shortlisted for Braian and Ryan, her photograph of nine-year-old twins with a not entirely willing hen at their great grandmother's house in Saue, an area of countryside near Tallinn.
Jessica Fulford-Dobson, who has worked as a freelance photographer since 2000, is nominated for a photograph called Skate Girl, from a series called the Skate Girls of Kabul which documents young Afghan girls who attend Skateistan, an NGO which uses skateboarding as a tool for empowerment.
Fulford-Dobson said she wanted to show the liberating environment that Skateistan provides for girls. "It is here that for a few hours a week they are able to have some semblance of a childhood in a place that is detached from the war and their working life on the streets.
"Like so many other girls across the world, when given a chance to do something positive that they love, each starts to discover their own identity and strength, their own distinctive style and personality."
Blerim Racaj was brought up in Kosovo but now works as a freelance photographer in London. He is shortlisted for Indecisive Moment from a recent and unpublished series about young Kosovars.
The project was partly triggered by the high level of unemployment among an increasingly young population in Kosovo. The photograph is of young people hanging out at the base of the national library, chosen by them as an "escape zone". Racaj said: "The photograph signifies that moment in time infused with uncertainty and vulnerability whilst knocking on the door of adulthood."
The fourth photograph, by London-based David Titlow, is deeply personal. Called Konrad Lars Hastings Titlow it shows the photographer's baby son being introduced to a dog after a midsummer party in Rataryd, Sweden.
Titlow said: "Everyone was a bit hazy from the previous day's excess – my girlfriend passed our son to the subdued revellers on the sofa – the composition and back light was so perfect that I had to capture the moment."
The four photographs will be among 60 selected for an exhibition to be held at the NPG between 13 November and 22 February with the winner, who receives £12,000, announced on 11 November.
