Rinko Kawauchi
Des oiseaux

 

Rinko Kawauchi, Des oiseaux (On birds)

Atelier EXB / Editions Xavier Barral, 2021

20,5 x 26 cm, 96 pages, 42 colour photographs

Hardcover | two versions, English and French

 

To celebrate the 10th title of the collection Des oiseaux (On birds), we are publishing a new series of Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi. Last spring, she turned her lenses on swallows at the birth season, and more particularly, on small nests the birds build away from prying eyes, made of ground, clay, water and dry herbs to protect their clutches. With all the poetry and sense of detail that characterize her work, Rinko Kawauchi reveals the magic of our daily life and the ephemeral beauty of suspended moments.

The swallows, thanks to their sharp wings, perch everywhere with great ease and elegance, filled with an opalescent light. Whether in equilibrium on electric poles or lost in the density of foliage, the swallows fly with lightning speed all wings deployed, to feed their nestlings: their lives unveil under our amazed eyes. The decentered compositions, the flying trajectories which seem to be heading out of the frame, the high and low angle views, the effects of overexposed light, visual associations, the immersion within nature, the infinitesimally small, the perception of textures – feathers, blades of grass, shiny beaks… – allow us to see the magnificence of our world.

A text by French ornithologist Guilhem Lesaffre entitled “A few grams of elegance” echoes the series and provides more context to the reader on the specific nature and lifestyle of swallows.