Jonge blauwe reigers in hun nest 1900 - 1930

Richard Tepe made this photograph, Jonge blauwe reigers in hun nest, sometime in the early 20th century. It's a small, intimate study, a symphony of tangled lines and tonal shifts, capturing three young blue herons nestled in their precarious, twiggy home. The photograph is a lesson in texture. Look at the way Tepe coaxes the light to reveal the chaotic architecture of the nest. Each branch, each feather, is rendered with a delicate precision. There's a real push and pull here - the desire to describe and document, set against the wild, untamed nature of the subject. The monochromatic palette further enhances the raw, organic feel, doesn't it? There’s something about the way the birds are arranged - that awkward sprawl, the disarray - that puts me in mind of Cy Twombly’s work, though of course Twombly worked on a much larger scale. Both artists invite us to see beauty in the incidental, in the things that might otherwise be overlooked.