Marilyn Bridges

Marilyn Bridges is one the world's foremost aerial photographers. Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1948, she studied drawing at the Art Students League in New York, and received an MFA in photography from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1981. Her photographs have been shown in over 300 exhibitions internationally and are included in over 80 museums and private collections.

Bridges' photographs, usually taken at low altitude from a small, single-engine aircraft, force the viewer to examine the landscape from an unfamiliar perspective. Through photographic studies of ancient, sacred and secular architecture and ground art, as well as equally poignant surveys of the contemporary landscape, Bridges has instigated a dialogue with which to examine man's future.

Marilyn Bridges' books include: Markings: Aerial Views of Sacred Landscapes (Aperture, 1986); Marilyn Bridges: The Sacred and Secular (ICP, 1990); Planet Peru (Aperture 1991) Vue d'Oiseau, La Mission Photographique Transmanche (Centre Regional de la Photographie, Douchy, France, 1996); Sacred and Secular: The Aerial Photography of Marilyn Bridges, CD-Rom (The Voyager Co., 1996) Egypt: Antiquities from Above (Bulfinch Press, 1996); This Land is Your Land (Aperture, 1997). Among her commissions are: Ohio Historical Society, Ministère de la Culture (Paris), Mercedes Benz (Stuttgart) Parnasssus Foundation (Houston, Montreal), the State of Maranhao (Brazil), the Danish Tourist Board and La Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi, Belgium.

Bridges was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982, a New York State CAPS Grant in 1983, a NEA Grant in 1984, and a Fulbright Fellowship in 1988. She was elected a fellow of The Explorers Club in New York in 1988. She is a licensed pilot for both single engine and multi-engine aircraft. Bridges lives outside of New York City and in Somerset, England.