“What are you looking at?”

Suffering through the winter blues (and maybe a little long-term-project-blues as well), I decided to seek out and give myself a new assignment to keep the energy moving. After some research I settled on the Wild Bird Fund, NYC’s first officially sanctioned bird rehabilitation center.  After a few phone calls with the director, Rita McMahone, I was on my way to photographing New York City’s ailing bird populations and the caring hands of staff at Wild Bird Fund.

Not surprisingly, many of its clients are urban pigeons injured in daily life–from birds soaked in oil from hovering below food trucks, to those suffering from lead poisoning, others with various broken limbs from battles with rats and cats, and those cruelly treated by humans.  I found the convalescing birds in their metallic cages with water, food receptacles, and perching bricks the most interesting subjects and will continue to take their “portraits”.