The Splendor of Birds: Art and Photographs From National Geographic

When I was a kid, my grandparents’ basement held great stores of treasure, but none greater than stacks of National Geographic magazines. I could entertain myself for hours flipping through those old issues. But the jackpot came when I found an article on birds, accompanied as always by fantastic photographs or drawings. National Geographic, the organization and the magazine, has been associated with birds from just about their beginning, well over a century ago. Now, the large and lovingly produced The Splendor of Birds: Art and Photographs From National Geographic celebrates that association.

As the subtitle suggests, this book is filled with photographs and paintings from the pages of National Geographic magazine and other publications. To cut right to the chase: given the publisher – National Geographic routinely puts out great books – and the hefty price tag, I was expecting to be blown away by this book. My expectations were so high that, honestly, I felt bound to be disappointed. I needn’t have worried.

First, The Splendor of Birds contains a lot of art – just shy of 500 pages’ worth. And with one image per page on average – most pages have a single image, some have two, and quite a few photos span two pages – that makes nearly one thousand images for your enjoyment. These pages aren’t small, either.

Second, the art and photographs here are simply beautiful. After one hundred-plus years of publications, the editors had quite a few images to pick from, but did a great job. Very, very few are mundane. It seemed that every turn of the page revealed something interesting or arresting. The reproduction here is top notch as well, I doubt that any of these images have ever looked better (my pictures here do not do them justice).

The Splendor of Birds is divided into four time periods: 1888-1939; 1940-1969; 1970-1999; 2000-2018. This breakdown gives an appreciation for how the art of illustration, and the use of photography specifically, has changed. As the time periods advance, you’ll notice some trends. The most obvious change is color photography and the other technical improvements that ever-better equipment allows. More subtly, each subsequent section includes a greater number images. That mirrors life, as we are more and more assailed with images made possible by equipment that is better, easier to use, and cheaper, drawing more people to photography. There are also progressively fewer paintings in relation to photographs, presumably for the same reason.

But what does not change is the quality. Sure, the technical aspects of the photos improve greatly, but the impact that they make upon the viewer does not. In that regard, the vintage photos are every bit as impressive as the most recent. Just check out the snow-covered Adelie Penguins on pages 44-45 – Adelies are supremely photogenic, but I can’t recall seeing a better shot of them than this. That quality continues all the way through.

The non-photographic artwork is just as splendid. Most of these works come from Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Allan Brooks, and Walter A. Weber. Fuertes was a master and Brooks illustrated many publications in his day, so those two are no surprise. But I was especially amazed at Weber’s work here, so much so that I’ve got to seek out more of his stuff.

Just a couple of the brilliant paintings by Walter Weber included in this book.

Even with all these wonderful pictures, something is still missing. When I think of National Geographic images, one of the first things that comes to mind are the illustrated maps that often accompany the magazines. But only one such example is included here, as a side-bar. I would love to see a book dedicated to these in the future.

Every image, whether painting or photograph, is captioned with a brief word about the subject, along with the artist/photographer and the date. Oddly, however, in a few – but still too many – cases the birds are not identified to species. One painting, for instance, is said to show “a kingfisher, cuckoo, and Red-tailed Tropicbird.”

There are a few other words to read here, besides the captions. Each section has a short introduction, highlighting the work that National Geographic did in that era regarding birds and conservation. A few snippets from magazine articles are interspersed throughout. And sidebars offer a “then and now” comparison between similar images shot many years apart, providing an insightful contrast.

If there is one area in which this book disappoints, it’s in the back. Each contributor gets a short biography, and there is a species index. That’s it. I wish there was an index for the contributors as well, for if a particular image catches your eye you may wish to see if there are any more from that artist, an impulse I felt when seeing the work of Walter Weber. Additionally, I’d like to know where these images came from, be it a particular issue of National Geographic, a book, or something else, in case I feel compelled to seek out additional work.

Recommendation

National Geographic, along with other organizations, have proclaimed 2018 to be the Year of the Bird, seeking to inspire a renewed commitment to bird conservation in honor of the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Splendor of Birds: Art and Photographs From National Geographic was intended to “commemorate and amplify” this initiative, and it proves to be a worthy capstone for the year. When I open this book I feel the same sense of awe as that kid, rifling through those wonderous, yellow-covered magazines.