Photographer Todd Forsgren depict birds that have been caught in mist nets as part of scientific surveys and ornithological research. 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 appear embarrassed, fearful, angry, and vulnerable. Forsgren photographs the birds in the fragile moments after they fly into the nets and just before the ornithologist removes them to be weighed and measured. After the bird becomes ‘known’ and the data is collected, it is then released back into the woods unharmed.
Forsgren’s decision to photograph birds in this way developed from his longstanding interest in bird watching colliding with his studies of biology and art history. His early inspiration came from two books full of bird paintings: John James Audubon’s Birds of America and Roger Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America. Alongside personal observation, these books were his primary aids in getting to know the birds.
In her essay in the accompanying monograph Ornithological Photographs entitled “Snaring the Viewer” and published by Daylight Books, art historian and teacher Susan Wegner writes: “Only an artist trained as a biologist could have put these birds before our eyes in this way. Forsgren understands the scientists’ methods and tools, earning their trust to work his art within the structure of their study. With comparable patience, curiosity, and care, scientist and artist work in concert.”
To make his photographs Forsgren sets up a “gorilla photography studio” in the field with a white backdrop and shoots fast. While he recognizes that viewers may find his photographs of birds caught between the wild and captivity unsettling, it is his hope that his work reflects the importance of gaining scientific data that can offer profound insights about bird populations and species that can be used to make critical decisions about conservation and answer other ecological questions.
Forsgren’s captivatingly beautiful, empathetic photographs of birds caught momentarily in mist nets can be seen as a metaphor for the complex and fraught relationship between humans and animals in our globalized world. His work, which magnificently meshes art and science, beckons us to appreciate the beauty of wildlife and these ancient avian creatures and understand the critical need to make substantial changes to save them, and ultimately ourselves, before it is too late.
Todd Forsgren: birdwatcher and ecologist
April 22 to May 30, 2017
Academy Art Museum
1083 5th Ave
New York, NY 10128
USA
