The lifelong project
Photographing as many of the world’s birds as one lifetime allows.
The Visual Life List is a living photographic field journal—part archive, part travel record, and part lifelong study of attention.
The premise
Every bird receives a permanent place.
A species joins the list with its first identifiable photograph. That first encounter receives a permanent number, then its page grows as stronger portraits, new behavior, different habitats, seasons, and stages of life are documented over time.
The goal is not to race through a checklist. It is to build a visual record that can hold both the imperfect first meeting and the photographs made after years of returning, learning, and looking more carefully.
How a species page evolves
Documentation becomes a study.
Visually documented
An identifiable photograph records the encounter and gives the species its permanent life-list number.
Portfolio in progress
The record expands with stronger images, field observations, habitat, and meaningful behavior.
Complete study
A mature body of work represents the species across the dimensions that make its life distinctive.
What the archive preserves
More than a portrait.
- 01The first encounter
- 02Behavior and family life
- 03Habitat and sense of place
- 04Return visits and changing seasons
- 05The evolution of a photographer’s eye
Behind the list — Brittany Templin
A life organized around encounters worth remembering.
I’m Brittany Templin, the bird and wildlife photographer behind The Visual Life List. I’m building this archive to give every bird I photograph a lasting place—one that can deepen long after the first sighting.
The project begins wherever I happen to be looking, then follows the birds outward: across regions, countries, habitats, and a lifetime of travel. The photographs are the record; the encounters are the reason to keep going.
Field ethic
The photograph never matters more than the bird.
Locations remain intentionally broad when specificity could disturb a bird or concentrate visitors around a sensitive site. Nesting, roosting, and resting birds are approached with particular care.
Explore the complete list