Stones from the Sky is a photograph-based exhibit highlighting different geological landscapes from an aerial view, taken by Michael Collier, a geologist, writer and pilot.
Collier flies his Cessna 180 to impossibly remote regions to find the places where the earth’s secrets are revealed. He pilots the tiny plane up mountain faces, down into canyons, and across glaciers, hugging the terrain, looking for the perfect shot. Using the plane as a tripod, he steadies his camera and squeezes the shutter.
“Geology is a storied science that chronicles
Earth’s ongoing evolution.
Its tales are spoken with the throaty rumble of an erupting
volcano; its words are whispered on winds that slowly abrade
ridges of ancient granite. To hear these stories, one learns a
new language spoken by rocks and interpreted by science.
Landscapes can be beautiful but sometimes baffling. On the
ground, like mites on an elephant, you don’t know if
you’re sitting on the world’s tooth or its toenail.
But a view from the sky adds a new dimension. Rise above and
you see everything from trunk to tail. An aerial perspective
reveals the fabric of entire landscapes and mountains arching
here, valleys plummeting there; lakes drowning, landslides
collapsing. With an aerial panorama, one sees how large
features are quilted together: granite peaks sewn to graceful
sedimentary slopes, canyons seamlessly stitched into wider
valleys.
A sense of time is the geologist’s best hand-lens,
the open window of a small plane his ideal perch.”
- Michael Collier, curator