First edition of Fleeting Gestures by RJ Muna (2025) Hardcover, 11.5x13 inches, 68 pages, 42 duotone plates. Beautifully printed in duotone on Korean art paper, Fleeting Gestures features an accordion binding with cloth covers, presented in a raven-black cloth slipcase. The first edition of this exquisite artist’s book is limited to 750 copies. About RJ Muna’s photographic series, Fleeting Gestures, captures various images of birds mid-flight. Muna embraces the camera as a machine and its indifference to what it takes a picture of. With variations in the exposure, he creates intentionally blurred abstractions of individual birds that capture the essence of their motion. Varying levels of clarity create an interplay between the photographs that requires the viewer to see the whole selection in order to interpret what each image conveys. The velocity of flight creates an array of gestures, minimal in detail, that range from the upward ascent of the feathered edge of a wing to the curvilinear expressionist stroke of a horizon.
