Looking into the sky with Xavi Bou

Hoy nos detenemos un rato a mirar al cielo abierto para descubrir “Ornitografías”, el proyecto que el barcelonés Xavi Bou dedica a plasmar en instantáneas la belleza del vuelo de las aves, su pasión desde que de pequeño acompañaba en largos paseos a su abuelo y juntos observaban el universo avícola de su entorno.

Desde entonces el interés de este geólogo reconvertido a fotógrafo por los pájaros no ha dejado de crecer, hasta el punto de transformarse en el motivo central de este bello proyecto orientado a plasmar en un único lapso de tiempo las formas que las aves generan al volar haciendo visible lo invisible.

A diferencia de los análisis del movimiento que le preceden, y tal y como el mismo cuenta en su web: “Ornitografías se aleja del enfoque científico de la cronofotografía que llevaron a cabo fotógrafos como Eadweard Muybridge y Étienne-Jules Marey”. La mirada con la que Xavi Bou retrata la escena no es invasiva, rechaza el estudio frío, dando como resultado imágenes de formas orgánicas que estimulan la imaginación.

Arte y ciencia van de la mano para crear imágenes que dejan de ser un simple retrato de la realidad para convertirse en un testimonio de los instantes que por un momento fueron pasado, presente y futuro a la vez. Ornitografías es un equilibrio entre arte y ciencia, un proyecto de divulgación naturalista y a la vez un ejercicio de poesía visual; una invitación a que todos percibamos el mundo con la misma mirada curiosa e inocente del niño que un día fuimos.

+ Xavi Bou.Today we pause a moment to look at the open sky to discover «Ornitographies», the project Barcelona’s Xavi Bou dedicated to capturing the beauty of the flight of birds in a quick snapshot, his passion since he was little and he accompanied on long walks his grandfather and together they watched the birds universe of their own environment.

Since then the interest of the geologist-turned-photographer because of birds, has not stopped growing, to the point of becoming the central motif of this beautiful project aimed to capture in a single time-lapse images that birds generate when flying, turning the invisible to visible.

Unlike the analysis of the movement that preceded this, and as he explains on his website: «Ornitographies» stands away from chronophotography the scientific approach conducted by photographers like Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey.» The way Xavi Bou portrays the scene is totally non-invasive, he rejects the frosty study, resulting in images of organic forms that stimulate one’s imagination.

Art and time are past, present and future happen simultaneously. Ornitographies is the balance between art and science, a project of naturalist release and at the same time an exercise of visual poetry; an invitation to everyone perceive the world with the same curiosity and innocence as the child that we once were.

+ Xavi Bou.Today we pause a moment to look at the open sky to discover «Ornitographies», the project Barcelona’s Xavi Bou dedicated to capturing the beauty of the flight of birds in a quick snapshot, his passion since he was little and he accompanied on long walks his grandfather and together they watched the birds universe of their own environment.

Since then the interest of the geologist-turned-photographer because of birds, has not stopped growing, to the point of becoming the central motif of this beautiful project aimed to capture in a single time-lapse images that birds generate when flying, turning the invisible to visible.

Unlike the analysis of the movement that preceded this, and as he explains on his website: «Ornitographies» stands away from chronophotography the scientific approach conducted by photographers like Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey.» The way Xavi Bou portrays the scene is totally non-invasive, he rejects the frosty study, resulting in images of organic forms that stimulate one’s imagination.

Art and time are past, present and future happen simultaneously. Ornitographies is the balance between art and science, a project of naturalist release and at the same time an exercise of visual poetry; an invitation to everyone perceive the world with the same curiosity and innocence as the child that we once were.

+ Xavi Bou.