Through his use of aerial photography, William Garnett offers the viewer an abstract view of a landscape by eliminating the horizon line. By placing himself above the landscape, Garnett is able to capture patterns and designs that could not otherwise be seen from the ground. By eliminating the horizon line and taking the photo above, he reduces the separation of foreground and background. The landscape and wildlife exist on the same field of vision and the photograph becomes like an Abstract Expressionist painting. While there are two separate areas of complementary color (the red river bed and nearby green shore), Garnett allows each color to have its own separate identity. The scattering of white birds across the composition adds a unifying pattern of white birds that also adds an expressionistic identity. While the red in Burtynsky’s Nickel Tailings #30 is incongruous to the natural landscape, the red clay of the Brazos River is a natural phenomenon.
-Ashley Williams & Elizabeth Gouin