Aerial photographer gets shots from perilous perch
Show comes to Mesa museum this weekend
Srianthi Perera
The Arizona Republic
May. 12, 2006 12:00 AM
When aerial photographer Adriel Heisey meets members of the public and they see his aircraft, many of the people are horrified.
The 450-pound plane is modified for Heisey to fly on an open-air perch, freeing his hands and strapping only one leg. The passenger seat has been removed to make a permanent pod for his camera.
The other half of the public is fascinated by the one-of-a kind airplane and thinks of it as an "intimate and wonderful way to fly."
Both camps are generally taken by his work.
Heisey travels to remote corners of the desert Southwest to find uncommon subjects such as earth figures and rock alignments in the lower Gila River that he photographs with an eagle's perspective. His work has appeared in Arizona Highways, National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines, and he has exhibited around the country.
Starting Saturday, his work will be on display in an exhibition titled "From Above: Images of a Storied Land" at Mesa Southwest Museum. The exhibition is curated in cooperation with the Center for Desert Archaeology in Tucson and in collaboration with the Pueblo Grande Museum in Phoenix. Featured are 31 large-scale archaeology photographs that were made over a decade.
"I just fell in love with desert landscapes," said Heisey, who also focuses on natural landscapes.
His day job as an executive pilot for the Navajo Tribal Government also helps.
"Seeing landscapes from above every day inspired me," he said.
Based in Window Rock, Heisey, 48, flies long distances almost daily and gets the opportunity to scout for subjects. His wife, Holly Rainier, works as a nurse at the reservation.
Each month, Heisey takes off on a photography mission, making six to eight flights, during which time he uses 40 to 60 rolls of film. Some of his discoveries are serendipitous, but most are read about or told to him by people.
His flying range encompasses all the states of the Four Corners, California and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. He has photographed Chaco Canyon, the Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico and Casas Grandes in Mexico.
One of his favorites is the Bouse Fisherman, a delicately rendered intaglio of a human figure spearing fish, situated in the foothills of the Plomosa Mountains, north of Quartzsite. The earth figure, or geoglyph, was created by early Native Americans.
"You appreciate it more from the air," Heisey said. "In aerial photography, it's difficult to achieve intimacy of human elements. The warmth of a human being is absent. But this is a photograph of a human being made by human beings."
Heisey's photograph of the Bouse Fisherman is named Intaglio With Circular Footpath.
Linda Pearce, programs manager of the private Center for Desert Archaeology, helped pick the photos.
"What we love so much is the perspective he gives," Pearce said, "His images let you see how the archaeology sites are part of the whole landscape; the big-picture view. And he takes it from a place that most of us don't get to see."
Heisey deems his work "a lifelong quest."
"They are best discovered from up," he said.
