Indigo Bunting

For her series Birds and Other Angels, Barbara Bosworth followed bird banders--scientists who catch, tag, and release birds for study and data collection--during spring migrations in northeast Ohio and central Massachusetts. The photographs seem at first to be concerned with classifying the natural world. But they are also part of an encompassing portrait of a complex and interconnected universe filled with wonder and metaphor.

Bosworth encountered gestures in Italian Renaissance paintings that recalled her own images: "I was amazed by a painting of a saint with his arms extended, releasing a bird towards heaven. It reminded me of the motion made when these captive birds are set free." In her photographs, we sense the quick pulse and energy of these delicate creatures, poised to take flight the instant they are released.