Highways in the sky: Photographer produces incredible pictures of light trails as planes blaze through the night
An inventive photographer captured this collection of stunning images that show highways in the night sky.
Kevin Cooley used a long-exposure lens to take these images of the light trails left by aircraft in the skies over the U.S.
His long-exposure technique does not just capture the trail of light left behind the planes as they pass over head, but also the eerie stillness of the landscapes they illuminate.
Based in Brooklyn, New York, Cooley's
works sit in renowned collections including at the SolomonR Guggenheim
Museum and the Schwartz Art Collection at Harvard Business School.
His works have been frequently published in upmarket magazines including The New Yorker, Marie Claire and Harper's, and he has also taken from commissions from high-profile clients including Architectural Record, Bomb Magazine, GQ, Newsweek Japan and the New York Times Magazine.
Cooley's carefully composed pictures describe the world almost like a painting, contrasting darkness with man-made light sources in the context of beautiful landscape backdrops, critics have said.
For these images he visited major airports around America, including LAX in Los Angeles, JFK and EWR in New York, and ETC in North Carolina, PetaPixel reported.
They were shot using a specialist Linhof Technikardan 45s large format camera through a 135mm Schneider Apo-Symmar lens.
By setting the aperture to f.22 and leaving the shutter open for long periods upwards of four to five minutes for each shot, Cooley was able to capture the trails left by aircraft lights as they buzzed overhead.
'Or in the case of this series, many minutes or even hours add up to construct a single image punctuated by the paths of commercial airplanes traversing the night skies.
'These white streaks, the only aspect of the planes visible in the photographs, are created by the landing and navigation lighting on every plane.
'Each line represents the amount of time it takes a commercial flight to pass through the frame.'
More of Cooley's work can be seen on his website.
Kevin Cooley used a long-exposure lens to take these images of the light trails left by aircraft in the skies over the U.S.
His long-exposure technique does not just capture the trail of light left behind the planes as they pass over head, but also the eerie stillness of the landscapes they illuminate.
Highway in the sky: A plane's contrails and lights are frozen in time in this long-exposure picture by Kevin Cooley
Blazing a trail: This plane's light trail shines so bright it appears like a meteorite burning through the atmosphere
The lights of several aircraft are seen in a trail lighting up the inky black night
Frozen in time: The shutter was left open for long periods upwards of five minutes to capture the images
Such long exposures meant the pictures could pick up even the faintest glimmers of reflected light
Into the distance: Cooley's work is featured in some of America's most important public art collections
Prolific: He has also had work published in The New Yorker, Marie Claire and Harper's
Project: Cooley travelled to airports across the U.S. to capture these incredible images
Special equipment: They were shot using a
specialist Linhof Technikardan 45s large format camera through a 135mm
Schneider Apo-Symmar lens
His works have been frequently published in upmarket magazines including The New Yorker, Marie Claire and Harper's, and he has also taken from commissions from high-profile clients including Architectural Record, Bomb Magazine, GQ, Newsweek Japan and the New York Times Magazine.
Cooley's carefully composed pictures describe the world almost like a painting, contrasting darkness with man-made light sources in the context of beautiful landscape backdrops, critics have said.
For these images he visited major airports around America, including LAX in Los Angeles, JFK and EWR in New York, and ETC in North Carolina, PetaPixel reported.
They were shot using a specialist Linhof Technikardan 45s large format camera through a 135mm Schneider Apo-Symmar lens.
By setting the aperture to f.22 and leaving the shutter open for long periods upwards of four to five minutes for each shot, Cooley was able to capture the trails left by aircraft lights as they buzzed overhead.
By setting the aperture to f.22 and leaving the
shutter open for long periods upwards of four to five minutes for each
shot, Cooley was able to capture the trails left by aircraft lights as
they buzzed overhead
In this incredible picture the lights from the
planes that have flown overhead hang in the sky like the threads of some
luminous spider's web
Critics say: Cooley's carefully composed
pictures describe the world almost like a painting, contrasting darkness
with manmade light sources in the context of beautiful landscape
backdrops
'In the case of this series, many minutes or
even hours add up to construct a single image punctuated by the paths of
commercial airplanes traversing the night skies,' Cooley said in a
statement
'These white streaks, the only aspect of the
planes visible in the photographs, are created by the landing and
navigation lighting on every plane,' he added
In a statement accommpanying the
project, Cooley said: 'Photography is by nature an exploration of time.
The blink of an eye may be frozen by the shutter. 'Or in the case of this series, many minutes or even hours add up to construct a single image punctuated by the paths of commercial airplanes traversing the night skies.
'These white streaks, the only aspect of the planes visible in the photographs, are created by the landing and navigation lighting on every plane.
'Each line represents the amount of time it takes a commercial flight to pass through the frame.'
More of Cooley's work can be seen on his website.
The special techniques Cooley used to capture
the light trails also emphasises the brightness of all the other lights
in the frame, as seen here
Light trails cut a swathe above the sky over two shipping containers in this image from the set
Thanks to Cooley's long-exposure technique, even dark suburbs like this appear brightly lit in his images
The light from this trail is reflected and broken up in the waters of a lake below