I have always loved looking out of aeroplane windows and the cover of this book just blew me away so that I simply had to buy it!
I am glad I did: it contains the story of a little-known pioneer of aerial photography, Alfred G.Buckham. As well as his biography, Celia Ferguson also takes us through the context in terms of the flying conditions and technical photographic methods of the time, together a wider glimpse into the context of art as a whole at the beginning of the 20th Century. These chapters are well-written and present a fascinating view into the man and his world.
The photographs, of which there are many, beautifully presented, are just stunning, from the classic scenes of London, to soaring clouds, to the mouth of an angry volcano. The point is made in the book that a higher perspective can release us from the (sometimes pointless) nitty-gritty minutiae of daily life and these pictures certainly do that. Although deprived of the power of speech, Buckham himself very eloquently expressed the communicative power of the visual image: "Very seldom is it realised that the imagination of the person who looks at a picture is as essential to the picture as the imagination of the person who produced it - the picture simply does not excel without the imagination of the beholder."