Paz de La Huerta: The Birds Didn't Die Over the Winter

Photographer Alexandra Carr met Paz de la Huerta--the actress and Boardwalk Empire star--in New York in 2007, shortly before Paz became the celebrity she is today, and they soon agreed to collaborate on a photo project. They began shooting in the fall of 2008, often using Paz’s small West Village apartment as a backdrop--which was mercifully well heated throughout that especially cold New York winter. A gorgeous, linen-bound volume, The Birds Didn’t Die over the Winter explores themes of love, loneliness and the difficult transition from youth into relative maturity. As Carr recalls, “it was made during a turbulent time in Paz’s life and her life is a subtext in an otherwise imagined reality. We would discuss a character and direction beforehand and then Paz would play out these roles partly of made up characters and of favorite scenes from films each shoot.” Paz is a charismatic subject throughout the book, at once fearless, sexual and vividly present, moving fluidly between roleplay and apparent candor. Carr explains the title: “[Paz] called one morning in the spring saying she had an idea for what we should call the book. She said she woke up and heard birds outside her window. She couldn’t believe they had survived such an abominable winter. It was a perfect metaphor for the book.”