Revealing the hidden beauty of bird flight

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Xavi Bou |

TEDxKonstanz

• March 2021

What traces would birds leave in the sky, if their path was visible? And how do the flights of birds visually differ from one another? With some research and exploration, Xavi Bou found the answer with his main project: Ornithographies. Inspired by the 19th Century Etienne-Jules Marey's Chronophotography, Xavi uses photographs to transform the sky into a canvas, by making visible the hidden beauty of the choreography of bird flight. Through this lens, flocks of birds appear as flowing, contorting ribbons. It's a view of collective behaviour like never before. Xavi is a photographer from Barcelona with a great passion for nature and in particular for Ornithology. His photographs have been published in National Geographic, The Guardian, Geo and many more. What brought him so far is his passion for his work and the eagerness to bring invisible footprints of birds to visibility. Intro animation by Mike Costelloe. Music intro from Phase 3 by Xylo-Ziko, used under CC BY-NC 4.0. Studio filming by Xavi Narro. Field filming by Daniel Cubero. Video editing by Lilith Kugler.