Travelers and residents of the cities of San Diego and Hong Kong have all been challenged by the close proximity of airplanes to the urban landscape. Suddenly the nose of an MD-11 or 757 with its landing gear extended will break over the top of an tall building – there is the momentary illusion that the plane is about to land on the roof of the skyscraper, but its speed is much too fast and the landing strip far too short, and the illusion is over in a second.
The process of making these photographs requires patience and time to become familiar with unique flight patterns, and accessible landscapes surrounding various airports. My objective is to frame an interesting composition before an aircraft pierces into this stationary landscape. With good timing an enormous steel bird is stopped in motion in a location where it doesn’t feel like it belongs. Some of these images are imbibed with a cocktail of subtle doom that plays upon our fear of a catastrophic accident or terrorism. In other words, this airplane doesn’t belong in this picture.
These images also explore the mystery of flight. How does a mechanical bird (747) weighing 127 tons stay aloft? It defies the imagination. Part of our puzzlement is due to the fact that the photographs have stopped the forward motion of the aircraft, making it appear to be suspended in the air or tangled in the landscape. Weight, gravity, and common sense maintain that this enormous hunk of metal should remain earthbound and not suspended above a cityscape.
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