Nest met drie jonge roerdompen naast twee eieren c. 1870 - 1940

Adolphe Burdet made this black and white photograph of a nest with three young bitterns next to two eggs. I love how the artist is trying to make a record of something he has witnessed, but how this is inevitably mediated through the act of image making. The grainy texture gives it a kind of rawness, like we are looking at something not meant for us to see. The contrast between the dark chicks and eggs, and the light foliage around the nest is striking, as is the composition, with the nest being partially obscured by the reeds. Your eye kind of has to search to find the subject of the photograph. The way the nest is hidden, nestled among the reeds, reminds me of some of the work of the contemporary photographer, Lucas Foglia, who is interested in the relationship between people and the natural world. Both artists embrace ambiguity, allowing the viewer to draw their own conclusions about what they are seeing.