From Above: Aerial Photographs from the Center for Creative Photography

From Above: Aerial Photographs from the Center for Creative Photography by Pauline GolaAugust 17, 2013

Marilyn Bridges. Cattle Feeding, Parker Ranch, Hawaii, 1990. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Steven Soter. ©Marilyn Bridges 1990 [2011 .51.14 – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART]

I love aerial photography so when curator Rebecca Senf, Ph.D., Norton Family Curator of Photography at the Center for Creative Photography, let me know about her comprehensive exhibition, From Above: Aerial Photography from the Center for Creative Photography at the Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center for Creative Photography, Phoenix Art Museum, I wanted to see more. The exhibition is in it’s last month and will run through September 22, 2013. It is a significant celebration of aerial images with over 80 aerial photographs that reflects the relationship between flight and photography.

As part of the Center for Creative Photography/Phoenix Art Museum collaboration, the organizations have created their first exhibition e-book: “From Above: Aerial Photographs from the Center for Creative Photography”. Working with Hol Art Books publisher, Greg Albers, an e-book was produced which brings together all the exhibition’s photographs and objects texts, plus an introductory essay. It can be downloaded for FREE at: http://is.gd/aerialphoto

Exhibition Statement

Aerial photography, though invented by 19^th-century French experimenters in hot air balloons, has a rich history in the American twentieth century. Situated above the land, in helicopter or airplane, cameras have been used in service of military reconnaissance, mountain exploration, news reporting, environmental activism, and the creation of art. The collection of the Center for Creative Photography traces those threads, and includes many exceptional aerial photographs, including work by W. Eugene Smith, Emmet Gowin, Bradford Washburn, Terry Evans, Marilyn Bridges, and William Garnett.

A centerpiece of this exhibition will be examples from a rare set of glass plate lantern slides from World War I collected by Edward Steichen. This set of 176 glass slides show sites of European bomb attacks, shot from overhead. Villages appear as perfect miniature maps, except for craters and pillars of smoke, evidence of bombs which successfully hit their targets. Since their arrival at the Center for Creative Photography over 35 years ago these photographs have never been exhibited.

From Above includes about 80 works from the Center for Creative Collection and will explore the variety of reasons photographers have taken to the air, from chronicling glaciers and high mountain reaches to getting an expansive view of how water is used in the American Southwest, and from illustrating the action in the Pacific theater of World War II for magazine readers back home to creating works of art that help show a new perspective on the important landmarks around us. Spanning much of the 20^th century, from views of the San Francisco Bay Area of the 1920s to color pictures made over Martha’s Vineyard in the last few years, this range of aerial photography leads us on a visual adventure.

Aerial photography not only draws us into the sky, to look anew at the landscape, but challenges our understanding of the reality of photography, as the view from above abstracts the world and presents a surprising two-dimensional version of what we think we know.

William Garnett. Snow Geese with Reflection of the Sun over Buena Vista Lake, California, 1953. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Ansel and Virginia Adams. ©William A. Garnett Estate [76.317.8 – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART]

Bradford Washburn. West Face of Mt. McKinley, Alaska, June 1977. Gelatin silver print. Gift of the artist and Ansel and Virginia Adams. ©Bradford Washburn, courtesy Decaneas Archive, Revere, MA [78.9.1 – SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION]

Albert Stevens. Oakland, 1920s. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Ansel and Virginia Adams. Courtesy of the U.S. Air Service and the Center for Creative Photography [78.100.34 – PEACETIME SURVEY]

Dean Brown. North Slope, Alaska, 1971. Dye transfer print. Dean Brown Archive/Gift of the Dean Brown Fund. Collection Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona ©2011 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents [78.200.41 – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART]

Dan Budnik. Black Mesa Coal Mine, “Kayenta” Pit, Hopi/Navajo, AZ, ca. 1980. Polaroid print. Special purchase from a grant from the Polaroid Corporation. ©Dan Budnik [81.117.27 – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART]

W. Eugene Smith. Avenger in Landing Circle over Bunker Hill Carrier, 1944. Gelatin silver print. W. Eugene Smith Archive. ©The Heirs of W. Eugene Smith [82.102.1 – PHOTOJOURNALISM]

Otto Hagel. Detroit, 1939. Gelatin silver print. Hansel Mieth/Otto Hagel Archive. Collection Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona © 1998 The University of Arizona Foundation [98.111.46 – PHOTOJOURNALISM]

Terry Evans. Farm Along Wet Walnut Creek West of Cheyenne Bottoms, August 1993. Chromogenic print. Water in the West Archive. ©Terry Evans [99.67.1 – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART]

Robert Dawson. Aerial view of flooded Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta, California, 1986. Gelatin silver print. Water in the West Archive. ©Robert Dawson [2000.52.2 – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART]

David Maisel. Quarry, Solebury, Pennsylvania, 1983. Gelatin silver print. Gift of the Frederick and Frances Sommer Trust. ©David Maisel [2000.110.56 – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART]

Martin Stupich. Haying near Pass Creek, Carbon County, WY, 1998. Gelatin silver print. Water in the West Archive. ©Martin Stupich [2001.10.4 – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART]

Neal Rantoul. Martha’s Vineyard 12, 2012. Archival inkjet print. Gift of the artist. ©Neal Rantoul [2012.47.12 – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART]

Photographer unknown. WWI Aerial Reconnaissance glass plate lantern slide. Edward Steichen Miscellaneous Collection [ag_24_01_029 and ag_24_01_035 – MILITARY RECONAISSANCE]

Photographer unknown. WWI Aerial Reconnaissance glass plate lantern slide. Edward Steichen Miscellaneous Collection [ag_24_01_029 and ag_24_01_035 – MILITARY RECONAISSANCE]

Tags: Aerial, Albert Stevens, Bradford Washburn, Dan Budnik, David Maisel, Dean Brown, Martin Stupich, Neal Rantoul, Otto Hagel, Robert Dawson, Terry Evans, W. Eugene Smith, William Garnett