Lot 228: Buckham Captain Alfred Aerial view

Buckham, Captain Alfred
Aerial view of Edinburgh, c. 1920, silver gelatine print, 45.5 by 37cm, pencil signature on mount, framed and glazed

Note: Captain Alfred Buckham [1879 - 1956] began to produce aerial photographs in 1906. The premier aerial photographer of the period his work was exhibited across Europe and the United States throughout the early decades of the 20th century.

Buckham would fly day after day. At the outset of the First World War he joined the Royal Naval Air Service and was placed in charge of aerial photography with the Grand Fleet. After nine crach landings Buckham was left with a throat injury resulting in the permanent insertion of a breathing tube. Ever the dare devil, Buckham ignored his doctor''s advice and continued to fly, preferring to work out of an open cockpit, standing straight up, "one cannot get succesful photographs whilst sitting in the cockpit for one''s arms would almost certainly come into contact with the vibrating side of the airplane." The particularly rough weather sought after by Buckham to achieve the required cloud formations made flying especially unstable, "it is an alarming experience to find yourself lolling over the side of an airplane while the landscape climbs up to the sky and the horizon loses its horizontality and endeavours to become vertical."

Buckham''s photographs are a marriage of art and technology, reflecting his passions for flying and nature. Expressive skies and brooding cloud formations add an atmospheric tension to Buckham''s images, enlivened further by the addition, in the dark room, of modern engineering including bridges and aeroplanes.

Aerial view of Edinburgh is a stunning example of Buckham''s work. The expressive, voluminous clouds roll over a small, but still imposing, Edinburgh castle with a bi-plane hanging in the air like a toy.

Exhibited: Views from above. NMS Museum of Flight, 2000.