Xavi receives me in his studio in the neighborhood of Gracia. I tell him again my admiration for his work, since the first time I saw one of his magnificent ornithographs. We talk about his photographs and the complex world of the art market. I guess he is much more comfortable with his camera patiently waiting for a flock of starlings in the field than discussing with gallery owners and collectors. He talks passionately about the behavior of birds. How one day he stopped the car when he discovered a group of cranes flying in a "V", which inexplicably ended up flying in circles, like vultures, creating a beautiful ellipse in the sky. Or how the starlings alter their trajectories because of the threatening appearance of a raptor.
I am glad to know that he does not want to become "the-photographer-who-portrays-the-traces-of-birds-flying" and wants to continue exploring other forms and contents, always mixing his devotion to nature with his great ability to create visual poetry based on light and movement.
Xavi Bou has a degree in Geology from the University of Barcelona. In 2004 he completed his photography studies at the International School of Photography Grisart, and during the following decade, Xavi worked in the advertising and fashion sector combining it with teaching photography.
In 2012 he started his project Ornitographies; photography inspired by his curiosity for the invisible patterns traced by birds in flight, which quickly attracted the attention of international publications and collectors, and since then his work has been published in National Geographic, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Geo and Sonntag, among many others. Xavi has exhibited Ornithographs in Australia, Holland, USA, Spain, Switzerland, France, Russia and Greece.