In Pursuit of Parakeets, 2024
First edition of 25
7 × 9 Inches
Perfect Bound
Comes with a surprise 4 × 5 inch print from the series.
Description
In early 2024, on my first trip to the UK, I met a 90-year-old man in an electric wheelchair gliding through Morden Hall Park. He heckled me as I tried, unsuccessfully, to photograph my first wild parakeet. As he continued on with his terrier, he shared two origin stories for London’s parakeet population.
The first dates to 1951, when the filming of The African Queen brought Katharine Hepburn and a flock of parakeets to London. Before the birds could make their on-screen debut, they escaped, settling in the city and spawning the parakeet population. The second story comes from 1968, when Jimi Hendrix allegedly released a pair of breeding parakeets, who went on to populate London’s parks.
Whether either story is true didn’t matter. I returned to London in May 2024 for three months of work, charting my movements around the city’s parks and commons in search of the vibrant, clamorous birds. Like the birds I followed, I found myself flourishing in the rare bursts of sun that broke through the gray city. This work is a record of that search, shaped in the borrowed weather where we briefly crossed paths.
In Pursuit of Parakeets, 2024
First edition of 25
7 × 9 Inches
Perfect Bound
Comes with a surprise 4 × 5 inch print from the series.
Description
In early 2024, on my first trip to the UK, I met a 90-year-old man in an electric wheelchair gliding through Morden Hall Park. He heckled me as I tried, unsuccessfully, to photograph my first wild parakeet. As he continued on with his terrier, he shared two origin stories for London’s parakeet population.
The first dates to 1951, when the filming of The African Queen brought Katharine Hepburn and a flock of parakeets to London. Before the birds could make their on-screen debut, they escaped, settling in the city and spawning the parakeet population. The second story comes from 1968, when Jimi Hendrix allegedly released a pair of breeding parakeets, who went on to populate London’s parks.
Whether either story is true didn’t matter. I returned to London in May 2024 for three months of work, charting my movements around the city’s parks and commons in search of the vibrant, clamorous birds. Like the birds I followed, I found myself flourishing in the rare bursts of sun that broke through the gray city. This work is a record of that search, shaped in the borrowed weather where we briefly crossed paths.
