Photo Credit: The Associated Press
When the Associated Press released two aerial photographs showing Joplin, Missouri before and after a devasting tornado struck on May 22, words seemed unable to convey the same message as a couple of million pixels could.
Aerial pictures function like maps -- they are indexical and provide context. Although they lack intimacy, aerials are best used to provide viewers with a sense of scale. They speak to us as though we would look upon a crime scene.
Photo Credit: The Associated Press
An aerial image is an abstraction. Aerials reduce objects into a montage of shapes, colors, forms, and lines. There is an almost grotesqueness about the images documenting the destruction of Joplin - a sense of undenied voyagerism from above.
