Photographer Eric Kogan is adept at spotting quirky coincidences on New York City’s streets. He captures bizarre and extraordinary scenarios in which pigeons mirror an X painted on a wall in the backdrop, a drippy vent creates a green cascade toward a weed sprouting from the brick, and a cluster of bright red balloons snag on a stoplight.
With a background in painting and a day job in the event industry, Kogan often would snap shots of trash bins and perfectly aligned clouds during his commute, but with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he began focusing primarily on his photography practice. “When I turned my sole attention to it, one of the first things to change was where I walked. The most desolate places pulled me. Not because they were more socially distant but because they were a stage for some of the most random sights the city had to offer,” he says. “I loved heading out in one direction only and not turning until having no more street to follow behind.”
Kogan’s ability to find humor and serendipity in his surroundings has produced an entire archive of unexpected images, which you can explore on his site and Instagram.
Bird: Exploring the Winged World is an extensive celebration of feathered creatures across thousands of years of art, science, and popular culture. Published by Phaidon, the stunning, 352-page volume compiles works from hundreds of artists, illustrators, photographers, and designers—including Lorna Simpson (previously), Nick Cave (previously), Ernst Haeckel (previously), and Florentijn Hofman (previously)—who choose ostriches, flamingos, and other avians as their central motifs. Each spread connects two distinct works from different periods, pairing anatomical renderings with James Audubon’s illustrations and striking contemporary portraits with vintage advertisements.
In addition to hundreds of images, the forthcoming tome features an introduction by Katrina van Grouw and information about urban birding experiences and taxonomies. Copies are available from Bookshop on November 10.