Heart of a Bird explores the entanglement between humans and the natural world.

Over five years (1988-1993) I traveled through remote lands and the coastal marshes of the Southeast in a VW camper van. This allowed me to stay immersed in places where the human presence yields to the powers of nature.

Small fishing communities and the annual alligator harvest on the Gulf Coast shaped my visual concerns. Within these spaces, the boundary between human and animal blurs. The immense power of the life force and the frailty of its physical embodiment come into sharp focus.

Birds have four-chambered hearts,

two atria and two ventricles

All reptiles have three-chambered hearts,

two atria and one ventricle

Only the reptilian alligator

has a four-chambered heart

like all mammals

like humans

like the heart of a bird

Publication note:

Images from Heart of a Bird will appear in a new monograph from Stanley/Barker of London. Books will be available in the fall of 2026. Update for purchase via this website coming soon!