Oakland Museum at the Oakland International Airport

January - May 5th, 2004
Sky Shots
Oakland International Airport
located in the connecting walkway between the two terminals.

Airport Exhibition Archive

As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight, it comes as something of a shock to realize that the first aerial photography predated the Wright Brothers historic flight by more than forty years.

French photographer Gaspard Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar, made the first aerial photographs during a balloon ascension in 1858. Bostononian James W. Black followed suit two years later. Since these early attempts, photographers have regularly risked life and limb to record every advance in the technology of flight.

The four photographers exhibited here, Californians all, represent the best in creative aerial photography. Robert Cameron, whose popular books have brought new recognition to the art of aerial photography, takes a traditional approach to create crystal clear views of American cities. The late Bob Walker, an ardent environmentalist, was driven by a desire to record wild areas of the Bay Area before encroaching development altered the landscape forever. Robert Hartman’s background, as both a pilot and an abstract painter, inspires him to record dramatic compositions of scarred terrains on infrared film. Most unusual of all, Cris Benton returns us to the earliest days of flight by using remote-controlled cameras sent aloft on hand-flown kites.

Much of the allure of flight is purely visual, and involves the simple joy of seeing Earth from the perspective of the heavens. Inspired by that joy, these four artists transform the experience into art for us all.

Drew Heath Johnson, Curator