Leah Kennedy is an Australian photographer specialising in a wide range of genres, from portraits to photographic surrealism, but it was a recent trip to Namibia that produced one of her most captivating series.
Hopping into either a Cessna light aircraft or helicopter, she took to the sky, using a medium format camera to capture what she saw below. What she came out with was a stunning collection of photographs of dry, richly-coloured desert landscapes. Take a look at the series below.
Leah Kennedy’s aerial photographs of Namibian desertscapes are like surreal, richly-coloured paintings. See them below.
Kennedy has been enamoured by aerial photography for quite some time now. On her website, she describes her fascination with it as an abstract art form:
“Aerial photography is a new perspective on landscape photography, they are less literal more abstract views of our world. They supply a different view on our common landscapes sometimes contributing to duality of an image and the uncertainty of what you are seeing.”
She has used aerial techniques to capture unique perspectives of landscapes around the world, from the Australian outback to Icelandic deltas. The Namibian series, however, is some of her most alluring work, revealing a wide range of abstract shapes, patterns and colours that exist within the desert topography.
Speaking with Colossal, she says of the series: “The resulting images are, at least temporarily, removed from their reality they take on different forms and in some cases appear to be of microscopic origins or reminiscent of something else entirely. This ambiguity and departure from reality is what intrigues and inspires my work.”
Take a look at some of the shots below via Colossal, and check out more of her work and prints for sale on her website.
