Customer Reviews

In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight

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This is a book of beauty. It's not a catalogue of airplanes -- there are plenty other books like that -- this is a collection of pieces of photographic art. There are quotes and some intelligent interesting background information on each plane or spacecraft; but the stars are the almost abstract stunning photographs. The jet intake of a MiG-21F, a peeling paint close-up of Gemini IV, the lines of a Grob 103, the exhaust nozzle of an F-104A Starfighter. It's a Technicolor high-def love affair with mechanical bits of aviation history. Worth getting a coffee table for . . .

I got to view the traveling Smithsonian exhibit this book is based upon, at the Dallas Frontiers of Flight museum at Dallas Love Field Airport, today. I was so impressed by the compositions and colors that I had to run to the gift shop to find a book of the collection. They had just stocked the book, today, and the clerk did not know what it was, so I was lucky to stumble across it, autographed, no less. This is not a collection of airplane photos - it is a study in the beauty created by the engineering which the artist found in the details. I try to accomplish a similar effect with my own photography, so I am looking to this book for inspiration. The text with each image describes the component and aircraft each image is made from, and gives its historical context. Amazon's price is much less than I paid.

The photos in this book are fantastic. The few you can see on the preview are beautiful, but do not even begin to do justice to the rest of the book. The shots are unique - ones I haven't seen in other compilations and focused on aspects of the plane I would not have personally thought of. I purchased it for a pilot who loved it. He spent hours pouring over it and still pulls it back out.