ALTITUDE
PETER MASSINI
ALTITUDE
PETER MASSINI
“I think we use patterns to provide some sort of order in a world of disorder. I believe a lot of art, music, science and math is an arrangement of patterns made to help us with our need for organization, amusement, and the need to learn. I am curious if others will find the patterns or the cityscapes more artistic, and although I think the cityscapes contain the same sense of mystery I am hoping the geometric patterns are found most creative.�
–Peter Massini
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Peter Massini ALTITUDE Featured at the Lionheart Gallery New Exhibition opens on January 4, 2017 through February 28, 2017 In the 2015 film Spectre, the legendary James Bond fights a villain as both hang outside a helicopter in flight, balanced on the landing skid. Bond is calm, and stylish, as he dispatches the bad guy, then the pilot, and flies away toward his next glory moment. Think of Peter Massini as the James Bond of high-flying art photographers. His weapon isn’t a SIG-Sauer handgun but a camera, and his mission isn’t to foil an evil plot but to capture a subject—in an image that presents a perspective and sense of wonder like none other. And like the movie hero, Massini’s proficiency and attention to detail are only heightened by a situation that would rattle others, when he is “forced from the common comfort of terra firma,” as he says on the website for Big City Aerial Photography, based in New York City. “Peter’s adventurous spirit finds him hanging from the open door of a helicopter on almost a daily basis, persistent in his quest for the best possible shot on each and every assignment,” the site says. “This persistence and tenacity are vividly evident in the stunning work he produces for clients, as well as in his dazzling, large-format iconography of [New York City], which he has placed in private and corporate settings worldwide.” Massini will be exhibiting his fine art photography in an exhibit entitled ALTITUDE, running from January 6 through February 26, 2017, at The Lionheart Gallery in Pound Ridge, N.Y. An opening reception is scheduled for January 7, from 5 to 8 p.m., with a snow date of January 8. The exhibit will consist of acrylic-faced prints and include cityscapes and images of infrastructure, along with a focus on geometric and pattern work—photos that seem to turn the visual into a new sensory language, rich in narrative, mystery, abstraction, and a sense of order. “I think we use patterns to provide some sort of order in a world of disorder,” Massini says. “I believe a lot of art, music, science and math is an arrangement of patterns made to help us with our need for organization, amusement, and the need to learn.” Massini’s first art photography show, The Lionheart Gallery exhibit provides a platform for the non-commercial projects the photographer has been working on in the last few years during personal flights, rather than voyages commissioned by a commercial client. How did it all start? “I was a location photographer doing a lot of corporate work a number of years back and was asked by an industrial client if I had ever shot from a helicopter before,” Massini recalls.
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He hadn’t, but Massini was game. “The company had a helicopter flying in the CEO and I spoke with the pilot for a bit, learned how to strap in, and we took the door off and away we went,” he says. “We were following and shooting a tugboat and barge of recycled paper motoring down the Hudson River across New York Harbor to a paper plant on Staten Island. I loved it and always have sought it out since, now it is 95 percent of what I do.” One of Massini’s favorite recent shoots was for Adidas, via an ad agency out of Portland, Oregon. “I shot aerials at various sporting locations around Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens from a helicopter at high altitude—straight down on spots such as the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the start of the New York City Marathon, the Arthur Ashe Tennis Center and various sporting fields,” the photographer said. The shots will be in black-and-white and will grace the walls of the new Adidas flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.” Beginning January 6, Massini’s photographs will also grace the walls of The Lionheart Gallery. “I am curious if others will find the patterns or the cityscapes more artistic, and although I think the cityscapes contain the same sense of mystery I am hoping the geometric patterns are found most creative,” he says. View ALTITUDE by Peter Massini at the Lionheart Gallery opening January 4, 2017 and running through February 28, 2017, Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 AM to 5 PM, and Sunday from 12 noon to 4 PM. For more information and directions to the gallery at 27 Westchester Avenue in Pound Ridge, New York, visit www.thelionheartgallery.com or call 914 764 8689.
ALTITUDE
PETER MASSINI
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After shooting the winter skaters at the Wollman Rink in Central Park numerous times over the years he always picked out the shots that had the most skaters in action, but going through them recently he noticed this shot with the heart shape then promptly, and shamelessly photoshopped out three skaters who had intruded into the middle.
Skateheart, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 36� x 36�
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Over the Bronx River Parkway and the Pelham Parkway interchange at Bronx Park. It is what he calls an Extraction, in which he finds a composition amongst the urban chaos and turns it to something else, whatever that may be.
Infrachange, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 40� x 50�
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This infrastructure shot is over Boston just north of the Bunker Hill Bridge. This photograph, like the image of the Bronx River Parkway, is also considered an extraction.
Flyway, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 40� x 60�
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The title is the original name for the Audi Automobile Company and this shot is over Port Newark in NY Harbor where the distinctively wrapped cars arrive by ship and are stored for further shipment inland.
Autounion, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 30� x 50�
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Shot over the New Jersey Shore in Seaside Park this was an area rebuilt after Superstorm Sandy. Late afternoon shadows and the local zoning laws made this shot.
Beach Repeat, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 24” x 36”
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A sunrise shot of 432 Park Avenue, NYC, which is the tallest residential structure in the U.S. Shot with a slight diffusion filter on the lens and on a morning with a little ground fog made the shot.
432 Park, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 20� x 30�
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Shot on the same morning as the photograph of 432 Park Avenue, this is a sunrise shot of The Chrysler Building, NYC, the second tallest building in New York City.
The Chrysler, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 20” x 30”
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A photograph of NYC at night.
Angleback, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 24” x 36”
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On a job he and his pilot came upon a fog bank over the upper portion of Newark Bay where their assignment was partially covered and the only thing visible over the waterway was the Newark Bay bridge. The beauty of its magic was unbelievable. Right place, right time.
Nowhere, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 24� x 36�
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A cross-section of walkways on Governor’s Island in Upper New York Bay. To give an idea of scale, the rectanlge object in the center is a dumpster.
Merge, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 24” x 16”
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This was photographed just as the sun was coming up over the residential buildings in Stuyvesant Town in NYC.
Stuytown, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 16� x 16�
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A shot of the IRT Flushing Line 7 Trains in Corona Park Queens. A bit unusual to be at this altitude in a helicopter, (5500ft) and right over Laguardia Airport with planes landing and taking off beneath you. This made it a very rewarding shot to get as he had flown by the trains a few times previously wishing he could shoot from way overhead. It is also a lot of fun because the pilot tips the aircraft to his side to enable a shot to be taken without the helicopter skids in the shot.
Rolling Stock, 2016 Digital Photography with Acrylic Glaze 20� x 50�
ARTSY EDITORIAL
BY DOUGLAS P. CLEMENT
LIONHEART FIVE AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER MASSINI
interview by gallery director susan d. grissom
This catalogue was published to accompany the ALTITUDE Exhibition at The Lionheart Gallery. Peter Massini ALTITUDE January 2017 All images copyright of the artist. Images of the works are reproduced courtesy of the artist and The Lionheart Gallery. Curated by Susan Grissom Designed by Chelsea Walsh Press Release and Review by Douglas P. Clement All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing of the copyright holder and The Lionheart Gallery. 914 764 8689 www.thelionheartgallery.com 27 Westchester Avenue, Pound Ridge, NY 10576