Bird

by Andrew Zuckerman (Photographer)

This is the sequel to photographer Andrew Zuckerman's run-away success "Creature", a book full of astonishing studio portraits of animals. In this new book, Zuckerman turns his camera lens upon winged creatures, shooting them against his trademark white background to allow the diversity and complexity of color and texture to shine. Containing more than 200 photographs of nearly 75 different bird species from Swallows to endangered Penguins, each bird is depicted with rare sensitivity, insight, humour, and wonder. Like "Creature", this book is perfect for animal lovers, orinthologists, photography fans, and anyone interested in the natural world. "Bird" is delightful and thought provoking, offering a glimpse of the most flighty members of the animal kingdom.

Genres: Photography, Birds, Art, Nonfiction, Nature, Coffee Table Books, Art and Photography

300 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Bobby]

Most of the photographs are outstanding. However, I found the stark white background, i.e., the lack of any context, rather distracting (somewhat ironically). And a few of the birds didn't have any close-up shots so it was hard to appreciate the details on those cases. But most of the pictures are quite stunning so definitely recommended.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong]

Phenomenal, extraordinary, remarkable, wondrous, marvelous, amazing, astounding, astonishing, fabulous, fantastic, breath-taking and stunning.

That's my subjective opinion about this book. Andrew Zuckerman has taken the most beautiful portraits of birds I have ever seen.

With rare sensitivity he has taken photos that reveal these lovely creatures in all their glory: in flight, posing, up close and personal, sometimes just showing the head.

Many of the birds are of prey, regally displayed, others are comical such as the flamingos who seem to be socializing at a pool party.

What makes these photos unique is that Zuckerman has isolated his subjects on a white background, without shadow or anything else to detract from our focus.

Highly recommended. I would give it a hundred stars if I could and I'm not one given to hyperbole.

[Carrie]

As described in the intro, the book presents birds on a white background without any context, not even species name (though you can find those at the end of the book). They are shot under beautiful but completely artificial lighting. This is the opposite of everything I normally look for in animal art. Birds are not wholly birds without the context of their habitats and behavior. In many ways the book treats them as objects, playing with them as abstract shapes on the page and highlighting colors and textures.

I expected it to feel too still and cold, but not at all. There is ton of life and movement in the images. It felt more like the birds were taking a break to show off all their special and beautiful features under a spotlight. It’s not my usual thing but I really like it.

[Robyn]

Photos are incredible, but the book as a whole left me feeling cold. Text is minimal: a very short introduction, and a two-page epilogue at the back of the book. The absence of identifiers / captions on the photos is disappointing; one must turn to the index to find species names.

Personally, I preferred the book, Bird Love by Leila Jeffreys.

[Joyce]

Great pics, no words. An excellent reference for visual artists. Bird is beautiful, the photos provide amazing colors and textures of feathers, beak and claw in fine detail.

Great pics, no words. Excellent reference for visual artists. Bird is beautiful; amazing colors and textures of feather, beak and claw.

[Rachel]

The pictures in this book are amazing. My only small quibble is that I always find it frustrating to flip to the back to find out what I'm looking at. It's a small quibble, though, and I can understand why they did it that way. If I had lots of money to splash out on huge coffee-table books, this would be on the list.

[Steve H]

An amazing large format book with extreme close-ups of birds. The only flaw with the book is it's difficult to identify the birds. Pages are just huge photos, no numbers, words, etc. You have to turn to a key in the back with thumbnails of the birds to determine what the big birds are.

[Lesley]

Another fabulous Christmas gift for Travis (we love you Dan!). The photos in this book are works of art with many exciting exotic species. We pour over the vibrant colors and are in awe of the detail of each bird. This is absolutely a luxurious book!

[Connie D]

Awesome photographs! They do, as intended, show the character of the birds and are portraits of individual birds, not just pictures of a generalized bird. There is so much close-up detail on each portrait, revealing extra personality and just gorgeous plumage and bird bodies.

[Jessica]

When I first took off the shrink wrap, it fell open to a two-page spread of a scarlet macaw... one of my favorite parrots. Outstanding book.

[Megan]

Beautiful - the same attention is given to each of the birds, whether traditionally pretty or not, which makes it all the more enthralling.

[JC]

Christmas present. Amazing! Hard to believe these are photographs!

[Lorraine]

Amazing bird pictures. The birds with a white background makes you notice things you don't normally notice. I liked the section at the end with some stories about taking the pictures.

[Fran]

the most amazing photos I've ever seen of birds!

[Julie]

Gorgeous, playful, heroic, amazing photos of spectacular birds. Zuckerman's portraits are just stunning.

[Melissa]

Absolutely stunning photography!