Calling the Birds Home is an intimate and profoundly moving monograph by American photographer Cheryle St. Onge. The book serves as a visual diary and elegy documenting the final years of the artist’s mother as she struggled with vascular dementia. Set against the serene, natural backdrop of coastal New Hampshire, St. Onge uses a large-format 8×10 view camera to capture the fleeting moments of clarity, the softening of memory, and the enduring bond between mother and daughter. The title refers to a shared ritual of bird watching and the metaphorical “flight” of the mind. Rather than focusing solely on the clinical aspects of decline, the work emphasizes the tactile beauty of aging and the resilience of love, interweaving portraits with the flora and fauna that defined their shared world.
