In his novel series Descent, photographer Peter Tonningsen brings together art and science. Part visual allegory, part empirical evidence, this book reveals fragments of the collections archived at U.C. Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in a series of 50 elegant digital photo collages emphasizing bird specimens. The multilayered imagery invites the viewer to go beyond the surface to encounter a curious assortment of visual information hinting at the histories behind these fallen birds.





