Bird, Please Be Careful

A Project Update That Nobody Asked For

I know that alongside the Super Bowl and the fragile state of democracy, the third topic you've all been discussing with your friends is: When will Travis update us on his weird bird series?

Well, I have good news! While the project has been on hold as I focus on other work—and spend time Googling “Hard to get Danish citizenship?” and “Speak English in Copenhagen?”—I’m planning to return to it soon, like in the Spring, I hope. In the meantime, I wanted to share some of the portraits from it with you. For some reason, I am shooting the humans in the series with film. I can’t really explain why, except that I brought my Mamiya 7 on the first shoot, and I liked the film, and now I’ve sort of locked myself into it.

If you’re not sure what series I’m talking about, welcome new subscriber! Or, if you've been here but missed the bird series post—what the hell? You are supposed to read every word that I write. Please go take five minutes to read it, another five to reflect on its brilliance, and meet us back here in 10.

Welcome back! For now, the series is called The Transporters, named after the group of volunteers who rescue injured and sick birds throughout the city. I had also considered naming it Bird Please Be Careful like this post, which was inspired by a handmade caution sign (see photo above) created by a cool young goth girl who works at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. She placed the sign on an office box containing an injured baby starling. I still might use that title, though it tends to confuse people a bit, at least until they see the photo.

Below are some of my favorite portraits so far, along with a few other photos mixed in, one of which is of a note, about a pigeon, with diarrhea, so that’s fun.

This is Diana, she is an artist who includes a lot of birds in her work. (dianateeterart.com)

“DID PROVIDE BERRIES”

This is Winston, he sometimes delivers injured birds on a Citibike.

This is the injured starling from the box shown above.

This is the note about the pigeon with the diarrhea. Me and my kids transported this one, they named it Stinky.

This is Barbara, she also volunteers at the Wild Bird Fund, where the rescued birds are treated.

This is Katherine, who leads the group for The NYC Bird Alliance (formerly NYC Audubon). She is essential to everything—the volunteers, as well as my access to take photos. The sagging shelves behind her hold their collection of bird books, including a few my son doesn’t have yet, but it is his birthday soon, so ...

This is a Vireo that got loose in our car. I asked my son to let me take a photo of it before he returned it to the safety of it’s box. It was hit by a bike, but seemed fine while flying around my head.

This is Amanda with a pigeon she rescued in lower Manhattan.

I'm planning to schedule a few more shoots once the weather warms up and people aren’t hibernating. In the meantime, if I delay these two other projects in their final stages, for unpaid work, I might have to get a real job, and nobody wants that.

Once I’ve completed more shoots, I’ll decide where to pitch the series. I already got ahead of myself and pitched it too early. The publication kindly declined, saying they really liked it but felt it wasn’t ready, and they were right, which is annoying. I could probably resubmit it, but I doubt they’ll say yes just because the series is now closer to completion. It may no longer feel fresh to them.

Anyway, I’ll keep you all updated on the progress, and if you have any suggestions for where it might be a good fit, I’d love to hear them.

Thanks, Travis

While writing this I was listening to: