A Higher Calling: Artist Alex MacLean
July 19, 2016
Besides being artful, beautiful, and intriguing, Alex MacLeanâs aerial photographs sound a clarion call about humanityâs impact on our planet.
Text by Robert Kiener
Stunning. Breathtaking. Mesmerizing. These are just a few of the words that have been used by art critics and fans alike to describe Massachusetts-based photographer Alex MacLeanâs unique body of work. After more than forty years of shooting strikingly beautiful scenes from out the windows of small planes and being honored with scores of photography awards and one-man shows, he has become, as the UKâs Daily Telegraph newspaper recently noted, âone of the worldâs greatest aerial photographers.â
âThatâs flattering,â says the soft-spoken, widely collected photographer as he sits in his comfortable Lincoln, Massachusetts, studio. âBut Iâd really be satisfied if my photography pleases people and, just as important, makes a difference.â
Collectors are drawn to the incredible variety of geometric shapes, patterns, landscapes, and scenes MacLean shoots rom 1,000 feet in the air. His artistic eye has captured the elusive beauty in everything from neatly patterned fields of wheat to people crowding a Cambridge poolside to scores of lobster boats floating lazily in the waters off Maine. His photographs are in collections ranging from Chicagoâs Museum of Contemporary Photography to Dartmouth Collegeâs Hood Museum to Parisâs Centre Georges Pompidou.
MacLeanâs work is valued for its content as much as its form. He focuses on the worldâs ever-changing landscape and has made a point of capturing images that reflect emerging social and environmental issues such as urban blight, sprawl, pollution, clear-cutting, climate change, and more. As the noted environmentalist Bill McKibben wrote in his introduction to MacLeanâs book OVER: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point, âAlex MacLeanâs pictures are an irreplaceable document bearing testimony to the precise forces now undermining our only planet. May they help give us the insight to make the changes that we must.â
MacLean trained as an architect at Harvard and worked as a landscape architect before he became a full-time aerial photographer. âI earned my pilotâs license and started photographing for architects and planners who needed aerial photos of their projects,â he explains. After his business picked up he bought his first plane, a Cessna 172, and began shooting his own artistic and personal photographs in addition to his commercial work. âIt didnât take me long, as I looked at the landscape across the country, to realize that in many cases manâs intervention was damaging nature. Some of my photography took on an activist intent,â he says.
Many of these photographs that document this impact on nature have been featured in the eleven books he has published over the years. He explains that he often âfits inâ these personal photography sessions during commercial assignments. âThere is a lot of chance discovery when Iâm flying,â says MacLean. âYou often canât anticipate when or where you will see a striking image, so I am always looking for the unexpected.â
His 2006 book, The Playbook, is a collection of photographs he took of âplay-orientedâ placesâfrom amusement park rides to hotel pools to baseball stadiumsâthat he came across while working on other assignments.
The idea for another book, Up on the Roof: New Yorkâs Hidden Skyline Spaces, was conceived when MacLean was flying over the city to document the redesign of Brooklyn Bridge Park. âI was amazed by the variety of things that I spotted on roofs, from basketball courts and swimming pools to putting greens to a one-acre organic farm on an office building.â He came back time and time again over nearly two years to a one-acre organic farm on an office building.â He came back time and time again over nearly two years to document these secret rooftop spacesâwhat he calls âthe fifth facadeââfor his 2012 book.
One of the biggest rooftop surprises? The roof of the Museum of Modern Art boasts a massive black, white, and turquoise Picasso-like design in crushed, recycled glass and rubber mulch. Because the roof garden is closed to MOMA visitors, only the museumâs high-rise neighbors can enjoy the view.
MacLeanâs future plans include scouting New England for examples for an environmental project that will illustrate agricultural best practices. âThere are great examples of the farm-to-table movement, carbon sequestration, and urban farming all over this region,â he says. âI have a lot more flying and photographing to do.â â˘
editorâs note: Alex MacLean is represented in New England by the Miller Yezerski Gallery, Boston, (617) 262-0550, milleryezerskigallery.com. To see more of his work, go to alexmaclean.com.
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