Carol E. Richards is a fine art photographer who captures the fleeting images of her avian subjects through a viewing scope, creating detailed portraits - simultaneously distant and near. Each feathered body in Dreams of Birds nearly fills the scope’s small oculus, as if in a spotlight before departing their small stage. To emphasize impermanence, the artist also documents the spaces left behind, prompting us to consider how we too are changed by absence. Seen as diptychs, her work explores the ephemeral natural world, “intimate yet vague, like a memory of a dream.”

Richards lived in Los Angeles for 30 years where she worked in commercial photography, television production, and art consulting while continuing her photography practice. Her artwork resides in numerous private and corporate collections.

This first edition volume of Dreams of Birds is limited to 750 copies. The book comprises 47 images beautifully printed on matte art paper and bound in cloth over boards. The artist’s first book, Birds have Wings, was published by Nazraeli Press in 2013 as part of our One Picture Book series.