PHOTO:Zack Seckler-Above,Part I

Far surpassing common aerial photography, in his mission to capture stunning aerial views of land, sea, and wildlife, Zack Seckler takes to the skies in tiny, single-propeller, light-sport aircrafts. His abstract photographs offer an extraordinary perspective of some of the planet’s most remote locations. Seckler uses the maneuverability of the small planes to his greatest advantage, instructing his pilots to fly precisely to locations which catch his interest (Part II).

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: ClampArt Archive

In his solo exhibition “Above” Zack Seckler  presents three series of aerial photographs from Iceland, Botswana, and South Africa. Picturing various natural and animal forms, from birds to seals, we get a true sense of his astonishing journey. With strong figures and forms, we also begin to feel the sheer power of Iceland’s frigid tundra, though, because of Seckler’s careful composition, we also understand the subtlety and magic of his experience. Through his unique perspective, vistas once invisible to those on the ground or in a jetliner above are captured in exquisite detail. As he soars over the wildlife and its surrounding beauty, the earth deconstructs into parts and shapes and we see the subtle, aesthetic moments within the iconic landscapes. This rare view enabled Seckler to create images that are simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. “I liken it to being over a giant canvas and being able to create brushstrokes. From elevations between 50 and 500 ft the landscape hovers on the line between things looking very real and recognisable and being more abstract. That’s what really draws me in — the line between reality and abstraction”. After graduating from college in 2003, Seckler began working as a photojournalist, but by 2008, he had acquired a taste for a conceptual approach to the medium requiring unique problem-solving, and he dove into commercial and personal art projects. The first series, “Botswana” was photographed the following year in 2009 when he was in the country for an assignment and asked his client for suggestions of what to do with his last few free days. Soon Seckler was introduced to a pilot who took him on an ultra-light flight over the salt flats. “It’s just me and the pilot sitting right next to each other, knees practically touching” says Seckler. “There are no real doors, no windows—there’s only a windshield, propeller, and wings”.  Botswana, situated in the southern part of the African continent, is the home to a wide range of animals, including zebras, wildebeests, and African buffalo, all of which appear prominently in the artist’s images from this body of work. It was not until November 2015, six years later, that the artist would get back into the air to shoot: Zack Seckler strapped himself into an ultra-light aircraft and headed off into squally skies over southern Iceland. He returned with incredible images that show a different view of the wild Nordic landscapes, away from the volcanoes and sheer-walled glaciers that have come to symbolize Iceland, Seckler’s aerial shots reveal an ethereal, textured world where ice-blue meltwaters swirl into crystalline seas populated by seals, sea lions and seabirds. Then, in 2016, Seckler traveled to South Africa to shoot the country’s enormous natural diversity where, in one week, he and his pilot covered nearly 2000 miles in 45 hours of flight. In his most stylistically varied series to date, the artist captured images of candy-colored landscapes populated by dolphins, sea turtles, giraffes, springbok, flamingos, giant herons, and even occasionally humans.

Info: ClampArt, 247 West 29th Street, New York, Duration: 27/6-9/8/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://clampart.com