DES OISEAUX (ON BIRDS)

This new series by Rinko Kawauchi celebrates the tenth title in the collection Des oiseaux. The Japanese photographer focused on swallows in Spring during birthing season in her neighborhood in the city of Chiba and, in particular, on the tiny nests that the birds build in window openings or in the underside of roofs, in order to protect their broods, which are fed by their parents for several weeks. Fascinated by this spectacle, with her characteristic poetry and sense of detail, Rinko Kawauchi brings out the marvelous in our daily lives and the ephemeral beauty of suspended moments. The swallows, thanks to their sharp wings, perch everywhere with ease and elegance, bathed in an opalescent light. 

This publication is part of the Des oiseaux (On birds) collection celebrating, through the vision of different artists, their immense presence in a world where they are now vulnerable. Accompanying these photographs, the ornithologist Guilhem Lesaffre writes a special essay. For this title, Lesaffre focuses on the swallows’ way of life, their histo­ry, their spring migration from south to north over thousands of kilometers, the season of birth and their particular relationship with man which leads them to find themselves threatened today. 

Titles in this collection include: Albarrán Cabrera, Graciela Iturbide, Leila Jeffreys, Michael Kenna, Byung-Hun Min, Yoshinori Mizutani, Bernard Plossu, Pentti Sammallahti, and Terri Weifenbach.