Markings: Aerial Views of Sacred Landscapes

It was for the gods that these earthworks were made and Marilyn Bridges photographs them as they were meant to be seen-- from the heavens. Markings is Bridges's elegant record of the signs of ancient culture on the earth's surface. Her photographic quest began with a flight over the plains of Peru. From a small aircraft she witnessed the extensive spirals, "runways," and animal figures carved into the earth by the Nazca Indians. Her vantage point revealed the true proportions of these mysterious markings, inspiring the work in this volume.

Flying over the jungle of the Yucatan photographing Mayan temples from low altitudes, Marilyn Bridges captured the scale of the Mayan endeavors in the vast sea of jungle surrounding their temples. Her perspective on these sacred historical sites poses profound questions about the relationship between human culture and the natural world. The harmony explicit in the geometry of the ancient sites is contrasted with the lines of encroachment left by modern man. Her American aerial landscapes evoke a diversity of forms and ideas and a natural understanding of rhythm and form. Bridges believes we have a responsibility to recover that knowledge of the natural forces that her photographs reveal.

In Britain the proximity of monuments like Stonehenge to modern urban centers heightens the contrast between the vision of the ancient surveyors, intimate with the land, and modern development. As geometrician Keith Critchlow comments in his accompanying text, "From a part of the heavens previously inhabitable only by angels and gods, we are given evidence of the power of centuries of durations and mystery through a light-sensitive mechanism that holds precise images of a blink of time."

In addition to Keith Critchlow, Maria Reiche, the leading authority on Nazca, provides an illuminating essay; Charles Gallenkamp introduced Bridges's photographs of the Mayan sites; and critic Lucy Lippard writes about Bridges's photographs of the American landscape.