Visions of the Australian landscape

An important thing to know about Andrew before getting into his photography is that he’s also a passionate pilot. When he’s not shooting on a fashion set, he’s usually flying his Cessna 182, which he lovingly calls Valerie, above the Australian landscape, ever marvelling at its beauty and trying to capture it with his Phase One.

In fact, the “Longitude / Latitude / Solitude” project was inspired by the expansive views that stuck with Andrew whenever he flew his plane, along with the style of Australian indigenous paintings depicting landscapes from above, as if through visions seen while dreaming or astral traveling.

Initially, Andrew tried to shoot handheld while flying his aircraft, but he soon realized he couldn’t do both at the same time. So he started figuring out a way to mount the camera on the plane, with the help of an engineer that was daring enough to help him on his crazy quest. They couldn’t really modify the plane, because any such work would need lengthy testing, certifications and approvals from aviation organizations, so in the end they made use of an existing inspection hole in the underbelly of the plane, hard-mounted the camera to the airframe pointing through the hole and connected it via wifi to an iPad and a hardwired push button shutter release mounted on the yoke of the plane.

If that sounds complicated, imagine actually having to take pictures without any sort of viewfinder (although Phase One’s Live View helps!) or even moving the camera per se: the plane becomes the camera. But all this was just a happy challenge for Andrew, a new personal ritual of performing his art and a fresh perspective on creating images.

Landscape photography is Andrew’s happy place. It’s very different from his commercial work both in process and in output. While his fashion workflow is defined by structure, commercial goals and production budgets, Andrew’s personal projects offer freedom and indulgence in a type of the photography that is pure art and creative vision.

In the interview with C.R.Kennedy, Andrew explains the advantages of using the IQ4 for his very special shooting process and goes over his favorite images from the “Longitude / Latitude / Solitude” project, along with how the Paris exhibition came to life. So make sure you watch the interview and discover more of Andrew’s work on his website.

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