Up, Up, In The Air: An Aerial Photographer

Alex Ferrone takes aerial photographs of Hamptons estates, the helicopter hovering near the ground as the pilot turns in tight for a close shot. Given name and the profession, you might think Alex is a man, but you’d be wrong.Ms. Ferrone not only is a woman, she also could be mistaken for a fashion model with her light flowing hair and graceful chic. Certainly the mansions she photographs are models.

But Ms. Ferrone is not only the only female practicing her profession in the region, she’s also a fine arts photographer, her striking fine art images also taken from the air in a helicopter. The photographer’s style runs the gamut—from realism for her commercial work to abstraction for her nature views of water, sandbars and vineyards.

Her love of aerial photography started shortly after she moved to the North Fork in 2008 and someone asked, “Do you want to take a helicopter ride to see Long Island?“ She jumped at the chance, but not before grabbing her camera. Her favorite sight on that initial journey was the Montauk Lighthouse, and to this day, she asks her pilot to take her there over and over again.

Over the years, Ms. Ferrone has learned a thing or two about shooting photos from the sky. “First, helicopter flying has to be safe—I’m not a fan of strange turns,” she said. “And it has to be neighborly. Although we get closer than an airplane or large helicopters, we don’t make lots of noise. In fact, we sound like a lawn mower.

“Of course, we fly without a door so I can get unobstructed views,” she continued. “It gives us the ability to photograph a house as beautiful as it can be.”

Some ways to take effective commercial photographs?

“In the Hamptons, get as much water as you can in the picture and show that the property is not hemmed in by other houses,” Ms. Ferrone advised.

She noted that things like high winds, or people flying kites on the beach, can get in the way of taking gorgeous real estate photos. So can clients, at resorts for example, who forget to make sure that the shades are down, the trash is removed and outdoor furniture is tidily arranged.

It’s a different story for Ms. Ferrone’s abstract images. She recalled how she first started doing landscapes from the air: “I had some lag time between getting to the airport and going to photograph a site, so I would start glancing around the area.

“I would see gorgeous patterns in the grasses, whitecaps and red tides in the water, waves on the bay,” she said. “I was constantly looking and seeing.”

Before long, Ms. Ferrone was photographing such views from the air, sometimes getting so close it was as if she were standing right on the beach or in the field.

Although she uses digital technology, she does not manipulate her subjects, she said. Which is remarkable, because the images are so mysterious and striking. There’s a picture of grasses blowing in the wind that could be a photograph of just about anything. Is it the clouds? The desert?

A vineyard with its textured rows of plants resembles a piece of fabric. A quarry looks like nothing familiar on this planet.

“Composition is important to me in both my kinds of aerial pictures,” Ms. Ferrone explained about both her commercial and fine art photography. “So is color.”

She likes to capture patterns of lines and textures on the ground in her commercial images; similarly, her abstractions are also abundant with designs and linear configurations we might find in a vineyard, for example.

Her most recent series of abstractions, called “Winter Aerials,” details the surface of ponds covered with ice. They remind us of some biomorphic creatures from another time and place.

In fact, many of Ms. Ferrone’s abstractions could exist in any place and at any time. Which makes sense, especially when she says, “I show a different world than the one we are familiar with. Although we all live in the same world, I try and show another perspective.”

The same goes for her commercial photographs of Hamptons homes. That “other perspective” is both literal and figurative, of course.

Alex Ferrone’s abstractions are in the “Long Island Biennial” show at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington until November 30. Call (631) 351-3250. She will also be represented in an exhibition at The Barn Gallery at Jedediah Hawkins Inn in Jamesport until October 14. Call (631) 734-8545.