Tom Blachfords Aerial Summertime Photo Series
Crisp photos capture a moment in time; a crowd of paddle boarders out to catch a wave, hundreds of bikes in the racks of a triathlon, a lone yacht heading out to sea.
“I think the series has been well received because it’s a new perspective on something that’s quite inhuman,” Blachford tells Broadsheet. “To see something zoomed in really close, from quite far away, from an angle that looks like the one you would take if you were peering down at something.”
After a detailed pre-flight preparation, Blachford sets off in a Robinson helicopter one thousand feet into the air until something captures his eye. Doors open, it is the shapes that often draw his attention.
“There’s a heap of blue, there’s something right in the middle, there’s something right at the edge of frame – it’s what appeals to my sense of composition and colour rather than trying to tell a story.”
It is when Blachford is back in his studio that the surprises and little moments are discovered. It is when he sees more detail in his photos; like when he zooms in on what was just an object in a sea of blue, a kayak, and finds there is an entire family and their dog in there.
Put together in the series, these photos are much more than just objects down below. Together these images are a narrative of Australia’s outdoor lifestyle; one that we are familiar with and able to personally relate to. Blachford’s photographs draw us in and make us remember fun times outside, driving us to dream of the summer ahead.
See more of Tom Blachford’s amazing work here.