From a Window: Art from the air

737 Shines


This is the first of two (or possibly more) portfolios I'm putting together from aerial photography from my trip to the Haughton Mars Project site on Devon Island in the Canadian high arctic.

(All photos: Sarah Thompson/Haughton Mars Project)

During my trip, I found myself having considerable opportunity for aerial photography. In all, I photographed from a 737, a Beechcraft 100, a Twin Otter (two flights), a helicopter, and a C-130 Hercules (three flights). This portfolio is comprised of images from the 737, one of the Twin Otter flights and the helicopter. Locations are mostly Devon Island, unless specified.

Artistically speaking, what I am going for is applying a fairly forceful B&W presentation to aerial images, giving a traditional landscape photography feel to images that are more typically seen in mapping systems like Google Earth. All of these photos were shot with a Nikon D200, hand-held. The helicopter shots were shot without glass, with the door removed, so I was hanging out of the door from the copilot's seat, though I was wearing a 4-point harness. The other images were shot through windows, so I am grateful for finding glass with reasonably good optical quality.

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