Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya is one of the largest rhinoceros sanctuaries in the world and home to Najin & Fatu, a mother and daughter who are the last living Northern White Rhinos in existence. Davison visited Ol Pejeta to photograph Najin & Fatu with their tirelessly devoted caretaker Zacharia, for a New York Times article about the successful in-vitro fertilization of their frozen eggs by a team of scientists, that may soon create a lifeline to avoid extinction of the species.

Davison turns his inimitable eye on Ol Pejeta Conservancy to capture the grace, power and pathos of Najin & Fatu, as well as focusing on the deep spiritual and physical connection between the rhinos and their keepers, who guard them with their life, using dogs, weapons, drones and surveillance. Like the powerful interplay of light and dark that often characterises Davison's work, Ol Pejeta is also a story of contrasts: on the one hand, the deep tragedy of another species slipping away at the hands of mankind, and on the other, the hope and optimism presented by science and innovation to support and uplift the fragile natural world.

This new series by Paolo Pellegrin celebrates the eleventh title of the collection Des oiseaux (On birds). Magnum photographer best known for his works testifying to political, economic or even ecological upheavals, his curious mind leads him to focus on subjects that are sometimes more contemplative, where nature holds a major place. Thus, during a stay in Japan in 2019, Paolo Pellegrin, who left to witness the blooming of the cherry trees, is more struck by the majesty and the aerial ballet of a colony of black kites flying over the temple of Shimogamo, Shinto shrine of the 7th century, in the heart of a primary forest.

Novogen is a project focusing on the eponymous breed of chickens that was developed in order to use its eggs in the production of pharmaceutical products such as medicines and vaccines. Through the investigation of the industrialised farming of the Novogen White Light chicken, Dániel Szalai (HU) intends to articulate questions and dilemmas regarding technology and man’s relation to nature.

The core of the book is formed by an extensive series of portraits of individual chickens besides photographs documenting the environment of the production facilities and the process of vaccine production. The images are supplemented by a reflective text by philosopher Fahim Amir, a selection of extracts from the management guide of the Novogen White Light and the marketing materials of the company that produces them.

Besides posing questions about our understanding of the natural, Szalai believes that the way these chickens are ‘conceptualised’ can be a metaphor for human positions in the job market, or in the political domain.

A frequent visitor to the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, Kota concentrates on animals in captivity in his photography. Though stylistically sophisticated, there is neither warmth nor coldness in his photographs, just pure observation. With each new photograph, an unsettling sensation begins to grow in the viewer. Kota explores relationships like seeing/being seen, comforting/being comforted, and compels us to come face to face with uncomfortable questions about the natural world.

“They sleep in an artificial space, they get fed at determined times, and if they get sick, they will be treated by doctors.
Always gazed upon by humans.
(…)
Their silence confronts me with the abyss of my own existence.”
― from Koto Sake’s afterword (included in Japanese and in English translation)

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.

“Empty Nests” is a photo series by Japanese artist Atsuko Murano Abalos of stork nests that she discovered during a short stay in the Alsace region in France in fall of 2019. All the nests she found were empty; the birds had already raised their young and embarked on the long journey to Africa. But seeing the many empty nests atop trees, chimneys and other high places, meticulously constructed from flimsy materials to satisfy the needs of their family, stirred something within Murano Abalos.

At first sight, her photographs seem to pay homage to the birds’ craftsmanship, dexterity and ingenuity, or to find humor (and admiration) in the bravery and brazenness of the nests’ locations. But with each turn of the page, new themes emerge and manifest themselves, and soon the photographs reveal a deeper fascination rooted in the emptiness of the nests – as self-constructed homes, as symbols of fertility and family values, as signifiers of hundreds of years of cohabitation.

“When a bird builds a next, it doesn’t waste resources to show someone its taste, preferences, financial strength, social standing, nor to complicate the nest’s function. The bird does not think, nor does it make comments about things like making the nest for nation, for god, or for the environment and society; therefore preventing distractions for potentially making big mistakes. It only knows and acknowledges the needs of its own body, and the need for caring for its children.”
― from Hiroshi Nakamura’s afterword “Capturing the Unseen” (included in Japanese and in English translation)

Since 2015 Charlotte Dumas has studied the Japanese island of Yonaguni and the critically-endangered breed of native horses that roam freely across it. A tragic part of the island’s past comes through in her characteristically intimate films and photos. In round glass objects, ballet shoes, or a horse’s girth cloth, a special blue colour recurs to link Japanese nature, the island’s horses, and three young girls, whose spirited independence brings a new energy to Yonaguni.

With A Sensitive Education the photographer Francesca Todde explores, through the figure of bird educator Tristan Plot, the possibilities of empathy between different natural species.
The narrative, far from being a naturalist documentation, is rather focused on the emotional sphere and sensitivity of birds and humans. The photographic research develops in resonance with the delicacy of this wordless dialogue.

Pictures from the hidden world of urban street cats.
Vol.1 – St. Petersburg

Leila Jeffreys takes us with this book into a journey through tropical forests and jungles all over the world towards astonishing bird species that she has been taking studio portraits of since 2008: “I’ve long noticed how many birds have specific expressions, just like us”, she explains. Jeffreys’ images, which rely on a profound connection with her sitters cultivated over many years, are an exercise in both artistry and empathy. Cultivating the art of waiting, Jeffreys develops a gallery of whimsical and hyper-realist portraits where all the birds come attired in their most beautiful finery with sumptuous plumage colors. One by one, they let their character shine through: graceful, mischievous, shy, proud, timid, poseur, all of which seem to want to chat to the viewer. Her practice underlines how humans anthropomorphize animals and what we really do share. 

The poetic universe of Spanish photographers duo Albarrán Cabrera is presented here through a dreamscape journey in the land of birds. Between reality and illusion, their photographs questions our relationship to the tangible world and vibrate gently through a wide palette and different photographic techniques: platinum and palladium prints, cyanotypes, gelatin prints, and pigmented printing…

Each photograph is like a story that seems to have been paused. The birds seem to be straight out of fantastical fairy tales; they merge into space, are revealed on reflective surfaces, and slip into the undergrowth whereas sometimes their physical presence is underlined by a tight framing. The birds are revealed through abstracting shapes sometimes simple dots and shadows. Albarrán Cabrera leave the interpretation of their images to the memory of the viewer and let our imagination fly.

Making visible the silence, the simplicity of nature and a sense of passing time. The photographs of Korean Byung-Hun Min, made between 1998 and 2020 throughout he world, take on the evanescence of a pencil sketch. With their subtle contrasts, their play of silky tones, they seem to show a fleeting instant between clarity and dissolution.

Min’s birds live in an ethereal space. They seem enveloped in a white veil, in a silvery light. The virtual monochromy of the image, the uniformity of the tones, oscillating between white and gray, the absence of perspectives and contrasts, the simplicity of the construction and the minimalism of the forms reproduce a reality that has become fantastical. The photographer’s painstaking work printing each negative allows him to reproduce not only what he saw, but also what he perceived. Min’s birds are an invitation to contemplation.

Born in Havana in 1941, Tony Mendoza moved with his family to Miami in 1960. A prolific writer as well as photographer, Mendoza is the subject and author of several books, but is perhaps best-known for “Ernie”, a photographic memoir centered on a cat he encountered when he moved into an apartment in New York City.

In Floridadogs, Mendoza presents a series of photographs he made one afternoon of beach-loving canines that he and his dog Bob encountered during an impromptu visit to the dog beach at Fort De Soto Park in Florida. Known for his sharp wit and great sense of humor, Mendoza delivers in spades with this glimpse into a secret society of ocean- and beach loving dogs.