Blurring Books launches Kickstarter campaign for Jonathan Hollingsworth’s upcoming book, FLACO: The Owl Who Escaped Captivity and Won the Hearts of the World.

NEW YORK, NY, USA, July 24, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Blurring Books has launched a Kickstarter for Jonathan Hollingsworth’s upcoming book, FLACO: The Owl Who Escaped Captivity & Captured the Hearts of the World. Only with your support can this book reach the hands of the public! There are 9 days left to pre-order a book, tote bag, or exclusive print: support the Kickstarter here.

Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-owl was destined to spend his life in a small enclosure in the Central Park Zoo, until the night of February 2, 2023 when an unknown liberator cut a hole in his cage and set him free. For two weeks, he eluded the nets and traps of zoo authorities who were determined that he couldn’t survive on his own, but Flaco proved them wrong–learning to hunt, fly, and make the city his home. News outlets and social media channels around the world picked up the story of the owl who had reclaimed his freedom and was, in effect, untaming himself before our eyes. As the epitome of freedom, fending for himself and observing the city from tree branches, fire escapes, and water towers, Flaco lived unabashedly according to his natural instincts and inspired his fans to make changes and face adversity in their own lives.

But urban environments can be brutal for wild birds, with the constant dangers of glass buildings and rodenticide. Weeks after his one-year anniversary of freedom, Flaco struck a window on the Upper West Side and died from blunt trauma and the compromising effects of a viral infection and four kinds of rodenticide. In the days after his passing, mourners left flowers and mementos (notes, drawings, paintings, photographs and handmade objects) at the base of Flaco’s favorite oak tree in Central Park, and on March 3rd, hundreds gathered to celebrate his legacy with remembrances, music, and poetry.

FLACO is a visually-rich, illustrated tribute to Flaco’s story of determination, survival, and living life on his own terms. The book includes more than 60 photographs of Flaco (roosting, flying, hunting, and returning the gaze of his many admirers), the artwork that Flaco inspired, and a selection of the memorial objects left at the base of Flaco’s favorite tree, making this the only work where they have been published.

The book features an introduction by Jonathan Hollingsworth and a foreword by ecologist and nature writer, Carl Safina (Alfie & Me). Photographers include Chris Ang, David Barrett, Paul Beiboer, Sheryl Checkman, Molly Eustis and Anke Frohlich. Featured visual artists include Calicho Arevalo and Bill Hutchinson.

As one 9-year-old wrote on a note at the base of Flaco’s tree, “One free bird can change people’s lives,” and FLACO celebrates all the ways that one free bird changed lives and inspired our own humanity.

To support the project by pre-ordering a copy of FLACO, a Flaco tote bag, or an exclusive print from visual artist, Calicho Arevalo, visit the Kickstarter here.

Jonathan Hollingsworth is a New York City-based writer and photographer whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Independent, The Sunday Times Magazine (London), BBC News Magazine, Die Welt and Photo District News, among others. He is the author of the monographs Left Behind: Life and Death Along the U.S. Border (Dewi Lewis, UK) and What We Think Now: Young People’s Response to the War in Iraq. He has had solo exhibitions at the California Museum of Photography, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Center for Photography at Woodstock and has lectured at the College of Santa Fe and University of New Mexico. He lives in Brooklyn with a ginger cat and an orange Naugahyde couch.

DB Burkeman
Blurring Books
[email protected]
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