Those who were birds
2018 - 2022
Black and white photographs
Dimensions variable

These large format analogue photographs depict lone birds of prey, hovering in empty skies. Deliberately keeping the animal distant within the frame, the works do not attempt to create familiar representations, preferring instead to focus on the material presence of an animal watching from a distance. At times an object of symbolic political power, the bird of prey is also regarded as a symbol of ecosystem health and is therefore invested with multiple meanings simultaneously. The birds photographed here are primarily re-introduced species and are thus regarded as a conservation success but this also by contrast, raises questions about the conditions leading to the depletion of the species. The works therefore operate as both the material presence of an animal and as a sign of permanent loss - both indicators of a ‘nature’ reshaped for the purposes of capital.