The article, while not exactly about the wonderful photographs shot by Richard Barnes does include a really fascinating multimedia slideshow of works he shot outside Rome in a suburb designed by Mussolini as a showcase for Fascist architecture. Famed as an architectural photographer (he won the Eisenstadt Award), Barnes was on fellowship in Rome when he was struck by the incredible behavior of starlings called "murmuration" and began to document huge flocks of birds flying together like airborne schools of fish. The images, shot in 2005, as well as a four-channel video piece (also viewable in the multimedia slideshow) are coming to New York's Hosfelt Gallery after a run at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
While there is no big trend insight to be had here, these images are really poetic in their beauty and the subject itself is a fascinating one that relates to many of the ultra-relevant environmental issues animating modern culture at the moment. The juxtaposition of natural behavior and man-made architecture leads to a discussion of how the starling has become something of an invading force in North America, displacing other birds such as the bluejay and also calls to mind a fascinating article in the most recent issue of Wired about a brilliant eco-minded urban planning initiative near Shanghai, designed to protect the migratory wetlands essential to the survival of the black-faced spoonbill.
Richard Barne's photography of starlings in flight outside Rome
Wired's "Pop Up City" article includes this rendering of a design concept created by Alejandro Gutierrez of Arup
