photography_mikekelly_airportraits_11

Airportraits By Mike Kelley

Scroll

Los Angeles based photographer Mike Kelley visualizes air traffic around the world by putting together his picture series ‘Airportraits’.

During the two-year process of making it, he traveled to large airports in many countries to depict aircraft within a time span of eight hours. After having taken all these shots, he layered the planes on top of a background image that was made during the same time period. Kelley points out that air traffic has an impact not only on globalization. It works on a much smaller dimension too, becoming significant on the local scale. In order to show the volume and diversity of aviation these days, he used a stationary camera to illustrate every aircraft movement in a lapse of time at one place. “In a world where travel and shipping are considered mundane and even a nuisance, Airportraits seeks to visualize a linear and nearly invisible phenomenon that is often taken for granted“, states Kelley. Every single image is meticulously crafted with great attention to detail. In this way the photographer took the surroundings of the airports into account. By choosing a background image that reflects the uniqueness of each location, Kelley captures the specific spirit of every airport he has observed.

photography_mikekelly_airportraits_18
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_15
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_19
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_11
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_20
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_17
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_16
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_14
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_13
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_10
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_08
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_07
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_06
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_05
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_04
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_03
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_02
photography_mikekelly_airportraits_01

All images © Mike Kelley

Subscribe To Our Newsletter
SIGN UP