An FYI for folks in the northeast – this is going to be good.
Owl Eggs (c) Rosamond Purcell
The Harvard Museum of Natural History opens a new exhibition Egg & Nest: Photographs by Rosamond Purcell on February 12th, 2009. World-renowned photographer Rosamond Purcell’s photographs of exquisitely elegant eggs and remarkable nests present an artist’s view of natural history. Egg & Nest will be on display only through March 15th.
In her artist statement in the exhibition Purcell states, “Visually nothing could be more different than an egg and a nest. The first is always perfect, no matter what the outer variations in shape; an egg is endless, irreducible. A nest, on the other hand is an artifact assembled by beak and claw, often messy, but always adapted to the needs of the next generation of birds. ” *
(2/9) Promoted from comments – Denise lets us know that, ” There’s a slide show of a number of the book’s images at the Harvard University Press website: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/puregg/“. Also, Curious Expeditions posted a review of Egg and Nest at almost the same time as I put this post up – great minds and all that!
Pingback: From the Bookshelf: Egg & Nest | Curious Expeditions
Have you seen the book?
Yes – it’s wonderful. There a page where she compares a Red-Winged Blackbird’s egg (photographed in sections and then opened up – Mercator, I think) with some jottings by Francis Bacon (painter, not philosopher *grin*) that is almost worth the price of the book by itself. The nests are just as good. If you have any higher-res pictures of the wire nest, I’d love electronic copies (if you don’t mind) – I’m heading down for a press meet-n-greet w/ RP and if the subject comes up, that nest is something I’d love to share w/ her.
There’s a slide show of a number of the book’s images at the Harvard University Press website: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/puregg/