I can see my spouse from uphere! Husband takes bird's-eye view photos of his naked wife
Artis usually a labour of love for the creator. Butone muse showed her devotion to creativity by lying spreadeagled and naked inthe middle of a pig farm. Theresult was an aerial project - shot by photographer John Crawford between 1984and 1987 - showing his then wife Carina pictured from a bird's-eye perspective. Afterlocking the 35mm colour negatives and prints away in a box, they have finallyseen the light of day, a quarter of a century after the project's completion. Andnow the photo project has gone viral on the internet. Kiwiphotographer Mr Crawford spent most of the mid-1980s flying from job to job insmall planes. Itgave him a unique view of the odd symmetry found on the ground - sparking theunique project titled 'Aerial Nudes'. MrCrawford, 61, from Taranaki, New Zealand, said: 'From my school days I had beeninterested in graphics, strange patterns and shapes. 'Lookingdown from a hovering helicopter you see the landscape from a birds eyeperspective and suddenly everything becomes abstract and symmetrical with nodistracting horizon line. 'Ithought strategically placing a nude in these locations would emphasise thepoint that we as human beings are so minuscule and insignificant in relation tothe enormity of the planet we live on.' Locationsfor the project included a runway, a railway line and a moving car weavingthrough traffic. Eachone was meticulously planned, with Mr Crawford scouting potential locationsfrom the air during his day job as a commercial photographer. Afterspotting a good area, he would return to photograph it in more detail - beforetrying to persuade land owners to let him shoot a nude there. MrCrawford would rope in favours from friends to help create the stunning series- including mates rates on a JetRanger helicopter and hiring tractors for a ploughed field scenario. MrCrawford added: "To pull it off we had to wait for the right day. It hadto be flat overcast light, not too windy. 'Shootingabove a local airport I had to talk the air traffic controllers into divertingincoming flights, and when I was shooting the nude on the runway the controltower suddenly filed up with men and binoculars.' Everyshot is as it appeared to John on that day - no photoshop or trickery, just acamera. MrCrawford,said: 'People ask me if I used Google Maps or a drone, but it is allfrom nothing more than a camera, no photo editing at all.' Onwhy the project has taken so long to reach a wider audience, Mr Crawfordrevealed: 'When I started the series I thought they were pretty cool, but Ilike to mull things around in my head. 'Asa photographer you get very close to your work. You think about it, proof it,enlarge it and print it, then you get sick of it. 'Ijust put these photographs away a lot longer than normal. Revisiting the images25 years later was certainly a buzz.' Andthanks to the reaction from fans online after posting them on his website, MrCrawford now plans to return to the project - using his 27-year-old daughterAmelia to pose naked on a Boeing 747.
|