Girls Gone Rewilding

The lush forests and endless meadows of Tennessee’s Short Mountain Sanctuary set the scene for the beautiful androgynous bodies in photographer Cass Bird’s sumptuous new series. Choosing seven striking, gender ambiguous girls from a collection of interns, friends and women spotted on the street, Bird shot her subjects frolicking amongst the fields in girly tutus and climbing trees in boyish vests during two trips to the artist residency in the summers of 2009 and 2010. “I don’t think there is anyone working right now in photography who has the same youthful seductive energy, the same mix of spontaneity and aesthetic rigor,” says The New York Times T Magazine Editor Sally Singer of the photographer in the foreword to her latest monograph, Rewilding. In addition to capturing the intimate and unseen sides of celebrities such as Cate Blanchett and LeBron James in commissions for the likes of The New Yorker and The Fader magazine, Bird’s personal projects have been shown at the Deitch Museum and Turin’s Palazzo Cavour gallery. “I’m trying to play and celebrate life,” says Bird of her unashamedly joyous work; “to create a space where people can physically express and take risks.”