Des oiseaux
Leila Jeffreys
Atelier EXB
English, French
Hardcover
96 pages
205 x 260 mm
2020
ISBN 9782365112581
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 colours. 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.
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. Titles in this collection include: Graciela Iturbide, Michael Kenna, Yoshinori Mizutani, Bernard Plossu, Pentti Sammallahti, and Terri Weifenbach.
(source: https://exb.fr/en/catalogue/414-des-oiseaux-leila-jeffreys.html)
About the Artist
Leila Jeffreys is an acclaimed photographic and video artist who lives in Sydney, Australia. She is best known for captivating images of birds from Australia and around the world that explore and subvert the traditions of portraiture. Her avian subjects are photographed at human scale with a startling attention to colour, line, form and composition. For Jeffreys, birds are both medium and message. Her practice asks critical questions about anthropomorphism while highlighting the connection between humans and other animals, the sense of interdependence between all living species and the profound refuge nature provides in a frantic world.
leilajeffreys.com
(source: https://www.leilajeffreys.com/about)
About the Publisher
Atelier EXB publishes works that address new forms of photography, contemporary art and sciences. Founded in 2002 by Xavier Barral, and taken over in 2020 by the five members of the team (Jordan Alves, Nathalie Chapuis, Yseult Chehata, Charlotte Debiolles and Perrine Somma), the publishing house conceives each book with great attention to both content and form. To question the forms of photography, to bring to light artistic voices, to approach the major questions which innervate our contemporary societies through the image: the Atelier EXB is at the same time a space of creation, curiosity and opening on the world.
Aesthetic rigor and editorial content, developed in close collaboration with major names in contemporary creation as well as more emerging figures, make up astonishing works where many artists and authors from around the world. To date, the catalog includes more than 200 critically acclaimed works.
exb.fr
(source: https://exb.fr/en/content/8-presentation)
