Peter Essick: Work In Progress

Peter Essick: Work In Progress by Aline SmithsonSeptember 11, 2024

©Peter Essick, Work In Progress Book Cover, published by Fall Line Press

Not all painters use a paint brush. In the case of Peter Essick, he creates artful aerials with a drone and a particularly inspired vision. Essick has recently released a book of his efforts, Work In Progress, published by Fall Line Press. This four-year project of drone photographs of construction sites is an extraordinary re-seeing of the Atlanta Metro area. Essick shares about the work, “It wasn’t until I started flying a drone that I realized construction sites offered so many different visual perspectives. The textures and colors of human-altered landscapes are endlessly fascinating. Seeing and photographing this landscape from the air has opened up for me new ways of creative expression. Construction sites change by the day, and the light and exposure are never the same. Wood, steel, and concrete relate to each other in infinite varieties of order and disorder.” Work in Progress is a unique vision of a human-altered landscape.

©Peter Essick, Work In Progress Book Cover, published by Fall Line Press

Peter Essick is a photographer, editor, author, speaker, instructor, and drone pilot with 30 years of experience working for National Geographic Magazine. He specializes in nature and environmental themes. Named one of the forty most influential nature photographers in the world by Outdoor Photography Magazine UK, Essick has been influenced by many noted American landscape photographers from Carleton Watkins to Robert Adams. His goal is to make photographs that move beyond documentation to reveal in careful compositions the human impact of development as well as the enduring power of the land.

Essick is the author of four books of his photographs, The Ansel Adams Wilderness, Our Beautiful, Fragile World, Fernbank Forest and Work in Progress. He has photographed stories for National Geographic on many environmental issues including climate change, high-tech trash, nuclear waste, and freshwater. In recent years, Essick has focused his work on a more personal documentation of the environmental and cultural changes in his hometown of Atlanta.

Essick’s photographs are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Booth Western Art Museum and many other private collections. He is represented by Spalding Nix Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia.

Follow on Instagram: @peteressick @falllinepress

©Peter Essick, Spread from Work In Progress

©Peter Essick, Spread from Work In Progress

©Peter Essick, Spread from Work In Progress

Essick Artist Statement – Learning to Fly

“We could hardly wait to get up in the morning.” —Wilbur Wright

“That’s something that tends to happen with new technologies generally: The most interesting applications turn up on a battlefield, or in a gallery —William Gibson

A few minutes before sunrise I unload my DJI drone from the back of my car in an industrial park. I power up and check all the instrument readings on the remote control. Batteries 100 percent, fourteen satellites engaged, four bars on the wireless connection, ready to fly. I am in full pilot mode as I launch the drone and climb it to a few hundred feet.

Across the road, construction workers are standing next to a line of dump trucks and earthmovers. The site is being graded to build a huge warehouse. For the next fifteen minutes, I focus on flying over the site and photographing the work in progress.

Photography has a history of documenting everyday life. In my neighborhood in Atlanta, construction activity is an everyday occurrence. It wasn’t until I started flying a drone that I realized construction sites offered so many different visual perspectives. The textures and colors of human-altered landscapes are endlessly fascinating. Seeing and photographing this landscape from the air has opened for me new ways of creative expression.

I find it hard to explain my deeper motives for photographing construction sites. On a personal level, I enjoy the unique challenge of capturing an ever-changing landscape. Construction sites change by the day, and the light and exposure are never the same, so there is always a sense of joy in capturing the perfect moment. Soil, wood, steel, and concrete relate to each other in infinite varieties of order and disorder. Surface reflections can create altering moods and various meanings. I enjoy capturing it all.

I am also trying to document the environmental impact of construction, land use, and suburban sprawl. Construction and development eliminate tree cover and result in loss of habitat for wildlife. More pavement heats up the city and exacerbates global warming. Sprawl is a major contributor to poor quality of life, and a sedentary lifestyle produces many detrimental health effects. All this development is happening on the traditional lands of the Muscogee people, whom the federal government forcibly removed from the region two centuries ago. Drones have been and continue to be used as weapons of war. I try to understand these issues and incorporate them into my photographic practice.

As my drone batteries run low, it is time to land. I feel a sense of accomplishment in being able to do creative work this close to home. I love the freedom to fly and the chance to share my vision of a human-altered landscape. —Peter Essick