Birds

Consisting of images photographed from the pages of antique ornithological volumes, this book is Clark Winter's tribute to the glorious world of exotic birds.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, explorers wandered the planet in search of the unknown, sometimes travelling for years with little communication and guidance. Charles Darwin and his predecessors and contemporaries enjoyed a self-assured sense of purpose, though their actual knowledge during such journeys was often limited. When they returned home with specimens of hitherto unknown species of flora and fauna, all were astounded by such visual extravagance.

Of birds in particular, their shapes, intricate colour patterns and feathers were overwhelming—alternatively described as divinely inspired or the result of evolution and the battle for survival: a debate that continues to this day.

With its intricate hand-coloured illustrations, Birds is a testament to this lost sense of awe, one difficult yet not impossible to access in today's connected world.