AWAKE Print

George ‘Zip’ André After nearly seven decades as a pilot, serving as an International airline captain, a test pilot at the edge of space, racing and airshows, and combat in the skies over Vietnam, I am fulfilling a long-held dream of making photographic art. Having had a lifetime of viewing the landscape from high altitudes and at great speeds, my photographs are an effort to slow down the passage of time and space; to focus on the architectural details and current condition of those Depression-era structures that are—not coincidentally—about the same age as I am. I favor black-and-white compositions because to me, they more closely represent the feeling of times past; they also distill compositional elements in a way that emphasizes the play between light, shadow, shapes, patterns, and textures. As a child, having traveled west many times with my family, I am drawn to the vernacular landscapes of the route 66 Mother Road environs, New Mexico pueblo settings, and dust bowl survivor atmosphere slowly disappearing from the American landscape. I try to capture and preserve these disappearing fragments not as a documentarian, but rather as a unique individual, passionate about making visible those fleeting photographic memories as I now see them. The other appeal to my lens is an appreciation for the patterns and order of man-made or natural arrangements of repeated elements, symmetric or near symmetric with a strong geometric flavor.