Dwellings: Fragile Architecture

A photographic study of over 1000 distinct bird nests

Steely-vented hummingbird, red-rumped cacique, wallace's fairy wren, streaky-breasted spiderhunter ... enigmatic names or terms, familiar only to ornithologists. This book is about the nests of these and many other bird species, the bizarre, incredibly fragile, interlaced creations cemented together with grass, clay, leaves and a variety of other materials that birds assemble to lay their eggs, incubate and raise their offspring. Karen Weinert's pictures combine artistic and documentary photography, natural science and museology from the Senckenberg Natural History Collection in Dresden, which mainly dates back to the 19th century and contains an impressive collection of around 1,000 bird nests from all over the world.She uses three different photographic methods: black and white photography in the abstract Blossfeldt style, color photography in a neutral documentary style, and scanning technology with which she scans found (abandoned) nests. The approximately 100 miniature habitats shown in this collection exemplify the immense variety of forms and construction techniques of these fantastic dwelling structures.