Before We Explain the World

Photography by Lu Heng

1Leaving the Known

A World from One Seat

Story 4 of 51 · 8 photographs

The cabin is narrow, the view beyond it almost without limit. Follow the wing out into the clouds. From the small space of a seat, the photographs open onto very different distances.

  1. Empty aircraft seats and oval windows catch warm light inside a quiet cabin.
    15

    Seats and windows inside an aircraft

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  1. Sunlight streams through a tall window, lighting the wall and curtains beside it.
    16

    Light beside a window

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  2. A white aircraft wing stretches above clouds beneath a blue sky.
    17

    A wing above the clouds

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  1. Beyond a dark wing, a thin orange band separates clouds from blue sky.
    18

    An orange line at the horizon

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  2. The curved tip of an aircraft wing cuts into a pale orange horizon.
    19

    An aircraft wing against an orange horizon

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  3. Beside a wing and engine, the sun hangs over a landscape with a shining river.
    20

    Sunlight beside the wing

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  1. A red horizon glows below a deep blue sky, seen from above the cloud layer.
    21

    A red horizon above the clouds

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  2. From above, scattered clouds and their shadows spread across a pale golden surface.
    22

    Gold beneath the clouds

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