Snowstorm at New Chitose Airport, Sapporo

Plane operations during a snowstorm at New Chitose airport, Sapporo Japan.

I’ve watched many videos recently of airports during snowy conditions, this is one of my favourites.

Aesthetically I love the combination of harsher weather and aircraft with a backdrop of the commercial airport. The contrast apparent in the heavy weather and the heavy technology also intrigues me.

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Nigerian Plane Crash- MD 83 Flight 992

Over the past few days I have been tracking the news reports and updated crash information on the MD83 crash in Nigeria. I am (trying) to keep up with text and images used in internet news reports, newspaper headlines, t.v news reports and also radio reports. I am looking at UK national news and also international news where I can.  Alongside this I am also keeping track of official updates from the crash investigation being carried out by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) assisted by the U.S. National Safety Transportation Board (NTSB).

By keeping up to date with this information I aim to see how certain types of images and texts are mediated in similar and contrasting ways and how they are presented to ‘bring’ information to the general public. I plan to conduct some experiments with spliced text from both media and official reports and also study images of the plane debris and the crash site. As I am focusing on the media spectacle and mediation of air disasters I hope this experimentation will allow me to make artwork as a comment and exploration of these issues.

I wil continue looking back at past crashes with complete reports as case studies, however I feel continually following this crash will let me show the pace of investigation and reporting. On crashes on this scale a completed report can vary in length but usually take a couple of years to finish.

Interview with Richard Mosse

Interview with photographer Richard Mosse on his Air Disaster series. The photographs capture various airports’ plane crash simulators in use, disembodied fuselages and fiery engines allow emergency crews to be ever ready for a real incident.

Very interesting photo series.

Link to Richard Mosse website– this series is under the category Airside.