Lukas Felzmann

Gull Juju

The Farallon Islands in the Pacific Ocean are often called “California’s Galapagos” and are home to one of the world’s largest colonies of nesting seabirds. It is the ideal setting for Lukas Felzmann’s latest book. Here, the photographer's main interest are not only the migratory birds, as in his previous book, Swarm (2011). He also looks at what the birds bring from afar: swallowed objects the gulls carry in their stomachs from the coast to the island, to gather these treasures in their nests on the Farallon Islands. Images of these magical objects, the “gull juju,” are joined by finely observed photographs of the research work carried out by scientists on the islands. Felzmann discovered during his stay that scientific work is imbued with its own kind of magic: in addition to uncovering similarities and differences between photographic and scientific documentation, he happened upon the scientists’ dream diaries. The book thus presents an archive of both visual and linguistic findings, in the process grappling with questions of transience, sustainability, and the co-existence of human and animal.

The Farallon Islands in the Pacific Ocean are often called “California’s Galapagos” and are home to one of the world’s largest colonies of nesting seabirds. It is the ideal setting for Lukas Felzmann’s latest book. Here, the photographer's main interest are not only the migratory birds, as in his previous book, Swarm (2011). He also looks at what the birds bring from afar: swallowed objects the gulls carry in their stomachs from the coast to the island, to gather these treasures in their nests on the Farallon Islands. Images of these magical objects, the “gull juju,” are joined by finely observed photographs of the research work carried out by scientists on the islands. Felzmann discovered during his stay that scientific work is imbued with its own kind of magic: in addition to uncovering similarities and differences between photographic and scientific documentation, he happened upon the scientists’ dream diaries. The book thus presents an archive of both visual and linguistic findings, in the process grappling with questions of transience, sustainability, and the co-existence of human and animal.

Author(s): Lukas Felzmann

Design: Lukas Felzmann with Integral Lars Müller

16,7 x 25,4 cm, 6 ½ x 10 in

168 pages, 137 illustrations

hardback

978-3-03778-449-5, English
CHF 40.00

Lukas Felzmann

Lukas Felzmann (*1959) is an artist and educator. He was born and grew up in Zürich, Switzerland, and has been living and working in San Francisco since 1981 where he tought photography at the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University for two decades. He is now an affiliated scholar at the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University. Felzmann's work and installations contain sculptural elements, and through photographic means he explores the intersections of the natural and the cultural.