Books: Look at the Land

Look at the Land: Aerial

Reflections on America

by Alex MacLean & Bill McKibben

Rizzoli Intl Publishers, 1993

Photographer and aviator Alex MacLean has spent twenty years traveling the length and breadth of America by air. With one hand navigating his plane and the other steadying his camera, he has skillfully captured in intensity colorful, unique photographs what can only be seen from above: the interconnectedness and extraordinary patterns of our natural and created environments.

In this collage of images – well-known geographical and historical markings, such as the San Andreas fault and the stone walls of New England, new perspectives of such common sights as the ubiquitous supermodern shopping center and tract-house developments, and often whimsical views, such as those of a football grid overlaying the baseball diamond on a playing field and the amoeba-like shapes of a miniature golf course–MacLean simultaneously dipels illusion and offers an important, critical look at America's true face.