Marilyn Bridges
b. 1948
Bridges grew up near Manhattan and was encouraged to pursue art by her mother, who was also an artist. Her interest in aerial landscapes began in 1976 when she was working on an assignment for a travel magazine in Peru. She photographed the prehistoric Nazca Lines and was mesmerized by the seemingly otherworldly landscape, but the images appeared washed out. She contacted experts as NASA to learn the proper techniques to take aerial photographs, then began to seriously study photography at the University of Rochester, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1979) and a Master of Fine Arts (1981).
Upon graduating, Bridges earned a Guggenheim Fellowship and used it to travel to the Yucatan to photograph the tropical jungle. During this trip, she was inspired to learn to fly planes herself. Bridges uses a medium format film camera, and takes photographs from a small airplane or helicopter with the door removed, usually from an altitude of 300 to 1000 feet photograph in the early morning and late afternoon where casted shadows create a sculptural effect. Her photographic prints are handcrafted, silver gelatin, and selenium toned.
Bridges’ work has been exhibited in over 300 exhibitions and is in the collection of over 90 institutions.
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