The non-profit publishing organization Daylight has recently released a book by photographer Todd R. Forsgren for his series Ornithological Photographs; a mesmerizing collection of intimate portraits of birds at the moment of their capture in mist nets as part of scientific surveys and ornithological research. This monograph serves as an effective and original critique of our impulse to name, classify and quantify wildlife.
The non-profit publishing organization Daylight has recently released a book by photographer Todd R. Forsgren for his series Ornithological Photographs; a mesmerizing collection of intimate portraits of birds at the moment of their capture in mist nets as part of scientific surveys and ornithological research. This monograph serves as an effective and original critique of our impulse to name, classify and quantify wildlife. Writing on this body of work Forsgren says, “During this moment, the birds inhabit a fascinating conceptual space between our framework of ‘the bird in the bush and the bird in the hand.’ The captured creatures are embarrassed, fearful, angry, and vulnerable. I photograph these birds just before the ornithologist removes them from the nets to be weighed and measured—before the bird becomes ‘known’ by these concise numbers—this is a fragile moment. The bird is then released, to disappear back into the woods, and into data these scientists have gathered.”
You can pick up a copy of Ornithological Photographs here.
