Avid birder Walter Kitundu re-creates avian experience at Bolinas Museum

By Vicki Larson Marin Independent Journal

WALTER KITUNDU HAD his camera focused on a hummingbird in San Francisco's Alta Plaza Park when a red-tail hawk flew over him. Intrigued, he returned to the park a few more times to look for the bird.

"One day it flew straight at me and landed on the ground 4 feet away from me and ate a caterpillar. We just sat there together for about a minute. Someone else walked by, and it flew off. But I was totally hooked," says Kitundu, who called the bird Patch.

And that's how the 40-year-old former Bolinas resident added bird photographer to a resume that includes being the inventor of the phonoharp and other wildly imaginative instruments for groups such as San Francisco's Kronos Quartet, a visual artist, hip-hop DJ, senior designer at the Exploratorium's Learning Studio and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award in 2008.

Former Bolinas resident Walter Kitundu, a 2008 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, is an avid bird photographer. Photo by Luigi Anzivino

"I'm not necessarily interested in seeing a lot of species but I'm really interested in seeing intimate, close looks at particular birds and really getting to know how they live their lives through my photographs," he says. "I've been privy to some pretty interesting behaviors."

His years of observing birds often perched on rocks or under trees in the wind and cold is the subject of a new photography-based e-book, "Bird Knowledge: Little Life Lessons Learned from Birds," and a site-specific installation at the Bolinas Museum, "The Ceiling of Our Day," through June 1.

"They teach you an awful lot. They teach you about patience, obviously, but certain things are more subtle," says Kitundu, who now lives in Oakland. "They taught me to pay attention to the light and the temperature and the wind in a way that makes me feel a little more connected, a little more aware about what's going on. "... I always say birds are the best bird watchers. When you're watching them, they will show you everything that's going on in their surroundings because their survival depends on it."

Like the time he followed the gaze of a great blue heron in San Francisco. "It looked up and I looked up to where it was looking and sure enough, there was a golden eagle flying over the city," he recalls.

More than 100 of his bird photographs are being featured at the Bolinas Museum, but rather than just hang on them framed on the walls, the photos are part of an installation that like just about everything he does is kinetic.

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Avid birder Walter Kitundu re-creates avian experience at Bolinas Museum