Alex MacLean

Alex S. MacLean (born 1947) is an American photographic artist who's best known for his spectacular aerial photographs.

Alex MacLean has piloted his plane over much of the United States documenting the landscape. He graduated from Harvard College in 1969 with a BA and went on to earn a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1973. He became interested in aerial scenery while he studied community planning and by 1975, MacLean received his commercial pilot license. Soon after, he established Landslides Aerial Photography, providing illustrative aerial photography for architects, landscape designers, urban planners, and environmentalists.

As an aerial photographer, MacLean has portrayed the history and evolution of the land from vast agricultural patterns to city grids, recording changes brought about by human intervention and natural processes. MacLean’s aerial views of settlement patterns in America and abroad effectively survey where and how people choose to live, and make a strong statement about cultural trends and values around the world and their implications for the environment. His powerful and descriptive images provide clues to understanding the relationship between natural and constructed environments.

MacLean is the author of ten books including: Up on the Roof: New York’s Hidden Skyline Spaces (2012), showing the potential of roofs in making cities more habitable and energy efficient, Chroniques Aeriennes: L’Art d’Alex MacLean (2010), Las Vegas | Venice (2010), OVER: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point (2008) which won the 2009 CORINE International Book Award, Taking Measures Across the American Landscape with James Corner (1996) which won the American Institute of Architects’ award for Excellence in International Architecture Book Publishing, and The Playbook (2006). MacLean has won numerous other awards including the American Academy of Rome’s Prix de Rome in Landscape Architecture for 2003-2004, and has also received grants and commissions from foundations and institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Berlin Academy of Arts, the Kansas City Design Center, the Rice Design Alliance, and the MAXXI National Museum of Art for the 21st Century.

MacLean’s photographs have been exhibited widely in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia and are found in private, public and university collections. Notable shows include The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas (2000), Arc en Reve Exhibition at the Centre d’Architecture in Bordeaux, France (2001), Les Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France (2002), BETC Euro RSCG and the Ministry of Culture and Communication (2003), MAXXI Italian Atlas Exhibition at the Museum of Art for the 21st Century, Rome, Italy (2007), Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, USA (2008), Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire (2008 and 2010), ERES Stiftung Gallery, Munich, Germany (2010), and Return of Landscape at the Academy of Art in Berlin, Germany (2010).

MacLean flies a highly fuel-efficient carbon-fiber plane out of Bedford, Massachusetts. He currently maintains a studio and lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

External links

• Alex MacLean's homepage
• Alex MacLean collection of the Chicago contemporary art museum

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