In the 1850s, French photographer Nadar hatched a plan to confer new prestige on the fledgling medium of photography. Using a hot air balloon, he shot the first aerial views of the Parisian cityscape below; the results, he was certain, would inspire people to say, "Now, that's art!" More than a century later, Robert Hartman, a painter, photographer, pilot and art professor at the University of California at Berkeley, uses infrared technology to produce modern-day landscapes that also look a lot like art — 20th century abstract paintings, to be precise. "Going green is on everyone's mind today, but in Hartman's infrared photographs, taken from 1,000 feet above the ground, the earth seems to bleed," says Joanne Milani-Cheatham, director of the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, which hosts Eye In The Sky: The Works of Robert Hartman. The images are on display through Jan. 9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., FMoPA, 200 N. Tampa St., Tampa, 813-221-2222, fmopa.org.
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2007.
