Photographs that encapsulate the often-overlooked simple beauty of aircraft design. Russo uses an unconvential approach, using bold combinations of line, light, shape and colour to challenge the visual dimensions of the powerful 20th century symbols. Includes essays by Anne Collins Goodyear, a specialist in the relationship between art, science and technology.

Author Biography

Carolyn Russo has worked as a photographer at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution since 1988. She is author of Artifacts of Flight (Harry N. Abrams, 2003) and Women and Flight: Portraits of Contemporary Women Pilots (Bulfinch Press, 1997). Women and Flight was also a traveling exhibit and toured the United States for seven years with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. Artifacts of Flight received awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts' 50 Books/50 Covers competition and the American Association of Museums' Publications Design Competition. She holds a BFA in photography from the Massachusetts College of Art. Her photographs have appeared in both solo and group shows nationally. Patty Wagstaff is a six-time member of the USA Aerobatic Team, has won the gold, silver, and bronze medals in Olympic-level international aerobatic competition, and is the first woman to win the title of U.S. National Aerobatic champion and one of the few people to win it three times. Flying before millions of airshow spectators each year, her breathtaking performances give spectators a front-row seat view of the precision and complexity of modern, unlimited hardcore aerobatics. Her smooth, aggressive style sets the standard for performers the world over. Anne Collins Goodyear is Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Goodyear is the author of essays in Reconsidering a Century of Flight (UNC Press, 2003) and exhibition catalogues for the North Carolina Museum of Art's Defying Gravity: Contemporary Art and Flight (Prestel, 2003) and the Art Institute of Chicago's 2001: Building for Space Travel (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001). She is co-editor of Flight: A Celebration of 100 Years in Art and Literature (Welcome Books, 2003).