Jean-Luc Mylayne has devoted his life to philosophical questions about our place on Earth—questions for which birds and their natural habitats serve as both subject and symbol, and through which he probes what it means to be human alongside nature. Made in close collaboration with his life partner, Mylène, each photograph is the result of months of patient work, a sustained investigation into temporality, perception and community. Made at the height of early debates about the Anthropocene, the images on view have only deepened in urgency since. Sprüth Magers is pleased to present Reflection, a solo exhibition of Mylayne’s work, on the occasion of Berlin Art Week.

The majority of these images were conceived during a residency in Marfa, Texas, where Mylayne was drawn to the intense shades of blue found in the water and sky, and sometimes in the birds themselves. N°498 - 499, Janvier Février Mars 2007 (2007) is exemplary in this regard. The diptych depicts a pair of mountain bluebirds, a…