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In the project Pictures of Birds, artist Alana Perino, winner of the 2025 Aperture Portfolio Prize, explores themes of familial memory, mortality, and the idea of home. Set on the Florida island of Longboat Key, among condominiums and an atmosphere of comfort, the work reflects on inherited traumas and privileges that have shaped both the Perino family’s values and artist's own sense of identity. This place became the backdrop for a slow fading—a personal narrative interwoven with observations of a senior community built around ideals of wellness and stability. Yet behind this illusion of permanence lies fragility: illness, fear, and the desire to hold onto what is destined to disappear.
Perino weaves together intimate domestic scenes with the vibrant ecology of the island. Through performative imagery, the work investigates the interplay between bodily presence and the natural environment, drawing attention to the cyclical nature of decay and renewal—both within the home and across the landscape.
Perino weaves together intimate domestic scenes with the vibrant ecology of the island. Through performative imagery, the work investigates the interplay between bodily presence and the natural environment, drawing attention to the cyclical nature of decay and renewal—both within the home and across the landscape.
“This particular ecosystem within Longboat Key—the humidity, the scope of life—highlights how interconnected all of the different species are and how reliant we are on the shells, the mangroves, and the water to proceed from one generation to another,” says Perino.
The photographs capture gestures, poses, objects, and everyday moments in which a preoccupation with death coexists with a deep longing for life. Shells and birds appear as recurring motifs, evoking a symbolic link between worlds—messengers of spiritual presence and ancestral memory.
“Before my mother descended into the underworld of dementia, she used to collect shells. Despite a preference for pool water over natural water, my parents chose to live and die near beaches. I’ve always feared that the shells she brought home would haunt her and, in turn, would haunt me. That they weren’t meant to decorate bathrooms and the bottoms of drawers. Even when birds pick up shells for food, they leave behind the hard mineral remnants to disintegrate and be reborn as something else entirely. In this way and many others, I feel the presence of ghosts”.
The photographs capture gestures, poses, objects, and everyday moments in which a preoccupation with death coexists with a deep longing for life. Shells and birds appear as recurring motifs, evoking a symbolic link between worlds—messengers of spiritual presence and ancestral memory.
“Before my mother descended into the underworld of dementia, she used to collect shells. Despite a preference for pool water over natural water, my parents chose to live and die near beaches. I’ve always feared that the shells she brought home would haunt her and, in turn, would haunt me. That they weren’t meant to decorate bathrooms and the bottoms of drawers. Even when birds pick up shells for food, they leave behind the hard mineral remnants to disintegrate and be reborn as something else entirely. In this way and many others, I feel the presence of ghosts”.
© Alana Perino
Alana Perino (born in New York, 1988) is an artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Their practice, which spans photography, sculpture, performance, and autofiction, is concerned with home, the nature of belonging, and perceptions of the self. Their work has been exhibited and published by Aperture, Lenscratch, LensCulture, and Palm Studios, among others. Previously, Perino has taught at Academy of Art University, Harvey Milk Center for the Arts, both in San Franciso, and at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.
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