Artist Bio
Click HERE to read Greg Cook's review of Alex's exhibition at Clark Gallery
Click HERE to see Alex MacLean's photographs in the Permanent Collectionof the Museum of Contemprary Photography in Chicago.
Click HERE to read about Air Lines, Photographs by Alex MacLean at the Peabody Essex Museum
Click HERE to see Alex MacLean's monograph The Playbook
Click HERE to see Alex MacLean's monograph Taking Measures Across the American Landscape
Click HERE to see Alex MacLean's monograph Designs on the Land Exploring America from the Air
Click HERE to see the feature entry on Heather Atwood's online blog Food for Thought
Click HERE to see the feature entry on Alex MacLean in Chris Al-Aswad online Art Blog Escape Into Life
Click HERE to read the feature entry on Alex MacLean in the German Art Blog The Junction for Contemporary Culture
Click HERE to see the online posting featuring Alex MacLean on the Art Blog Paranoias.org
Click HERE to see the online posting on Alex MacLean in the Art Blog COLOURlovers
Pilot and photographer Alex MacLean has flown his plane over much of the United States documenting the landscape. Trained as an architect, he has portrayed the history and evolution of the land from vast agricultural patterns to city grids, recording changes brought about by human intervention and natural processes. His powerful and descriptive images provide clues to understanding the relationship between the natural and constructed environments.
Mr. MacLean’s photographs have been exhibited widely in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia and are found in private, public and university collections. He has won numerous awards, including the 2009 CORINE International Book Award, the American Academy of Rome’s Prix de Rome in Landscape Architecture for 2003-2004, and grants from foundations such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Graham Foundation. MacLean is the author of seven books including OVER: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point (2008), Visualizing Density (2007), The Playbook (2006), Designs on the Land: Exploring America from the Air (2003), Taking Measures Across the American Landscape (1996), Look at the Land; Aerial Reflections of America (1993) and Above and Beyond; Visualizing Change in Small Towns and Rural Areas (2002).
Alex MacLean earned a BA from Harvard College (1969) and a Master in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1973). He began aerial photography as part of a graduate study on community planning, and obtained his commercial pilot license in 1975. MacLean maintains a studio and lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts.