Parker Rattlesnake, Parker, Arizona, 1983, gelatin silver print. Allentown Art Museum, gift of Garrett Gunderson, 2015.
Now–April 29
In 1976, Marilyn Bridges visited Peru and took aerial photos of ancient earthworks for a travel magazine. She was so inspired by this experience that she decided to pursue a career in fine-art photography. Bridges’ work documents geoglyphs (large-scale designs made on the ground) and other alterations humans have made to the landscape. This exhibition brings together a selection of her work from the 1980s, which includes both prehistoric and contemporary subjects in the United States and Peru.
The unique landscapes that Bridges captures can only be understood from the air. Even though she is a licensed pilot, she lets someone else fly the plane when she’s photographing. To take clear pictures, Bridges needs the plane to bank and turn at near-stall speed and at a low altitude (between 200 and 1,000 feet).
Bridges sums up her work as recording the “messages of humankind” that are inscribed on the earth. Her images of prehistoric geoglyphs invite wonder. How could humans have built them without modern technology, and what do they mean? Her photography also encourages
us to compare these ancient monuments with those of our own civilization—perhaps leading to humbling reflection about what the archaeologists of the future might say about us.
Allentown Art Museum | 31 N. 5th St., Allentown | 610.432.4333 | allentownartmuseum.org
