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184 Alex MacLean was born in Seattle, Washington on 8 January 1947 and grew up on an eleven acre 'hobby farm', just outside Washington DC. He was interested in photography from an early age and when he was nine went on holiday to Europe taking his clamshell Brownie camera. Whilst studying for his undergraduate degree at Harvard University MacLean enjoyed photographing the landscapes of subsistence farming surrounding him. He went on to gain a Masters degree in architecture from Harvard during the course of which he regularly undertook field research, using his camera as the main source for gathering information. When he was offered the chance to research from the air, MacLean discovered it gave him the best view for site analysis and, in 1975, he went on to acquire his pilot's license. This helped him fulfil his ambition to photograph our rapidly changing environment and document our impact on the landscapes below. That same year MacLean founded his company, Landslides, specialising in aerial photography for architects, designers, planners and environmentalists. The company continues to thrive today and MacLean has gone on to amass a huge archive of streetscapes, parks, gardens, campuses, plazas, mining and extraction pits and urban design developments across parts of America and Europe. The commissions MacLean has received through Landslides also allow him to explore his personal artistic practice which is chiefly concerned with development, industry and humanity's footprint on the natural world. With only one minor accident and one camera lens lost, MacLean continues to spend two to three hours per day flying across America observing the dramatic landscape below watching it evolve and change. As he said in an interview for Photographer's Forum in 1994: 'It's easy to fall into imitations yourself. I try to take a fresh approach to all the shots, to be really open to what I'm seeing rather having a premeditated idea about what I'm going to shoot, or forcing a statement out of something that's not there. My good pictures really come from my being responsive.' Currently living in Lincoln, Massachusetts, MacLean has published twelve books and received multiple awards, most recently receiving the CORINE International Book Award. Alex MacLean Born 1947