Before We Explain the World

Photography by Lu Heng

1Leaving the Known

Leaving the Ground

Story 3 of 51 · 5 photographs

Look at the aircraft from the ground, then let your eyes rise. A fuselage, clouds, then terrain: the scale shifts from one image to the next. Something that looked large becomes a small outline.

  1. Parked aircraft form a dark row against an orange horizon, with the sun low behind them.
    10

    Aircraft at the horizon

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  2. An aircraft viewed from behind flies low above an airfield with its landing gear extended.
    11

    Low above the airfield

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  1. An aircraft seen from below, its dark underside against blue sky.
    12

    An aircraft overhead

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  1. A helicopter passes above snow-covered mountain peaks beneath a bright blue sky and the sun.
    13

    A helicopter above the mountains

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  2. A small helicopter crosses blue sky above pink-edged clouds.
    14

    A helicopter and pink-edged clouds

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