Photographer R.J. Kern focused on the experiences of children and their animals in “The Unchosen Ones,” an exhibit on display this winter at the Central Washington University Museum of Culture and Environment.

Kern shot “solemn and dignified” portraits of these children and animals together as they competed for the title of grand champion in a rural Minnesota county fair. What binds these subjects together, Kern said, was that none of them were winners. Instead, each pair he photographed came in second, third, or fourth place; some did not place at all.