The New York City Ballet and Award winning Aerial Photographer Brad Walls have collaborated to produce a unique photographic series from above.
Conducted on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah in September, 2022, the photoshoot conducted solely from the air, involved Sasonah Huttenbach, a member of the New York City Ballet’s Corp de Ballet.
Walls, deeply fascinated by the story of Swan Lake, wanted to explore the light and dark aspects of humanity through art from an alternate perspective. He chose a vast, barren salt lake as the location for the photoshoot, using shadows to convey different emotions as he says “Depending on your state of mind, your shadow could offer comfort or reflect a darker mood”. Additionally, he found it fitting to represent Swan Lake on a salt lake, adding a clever touch to the project.
Walls additionally had a clear objective for this project – to challenge conventional Ballet photography norms and redirect the attention from the confines of the theater to the outside world. He expressed, “While theater ballet performances are undoubtedly breathtaking, there exists a captivating harmony between the natural wonders of our world and the art of Ballet—it’s a seamless fusion.”
Raised between Tokyo and New York City, Huttenbach remembers the day Brad pitched the photoshoot concept, recalling “I connected with the idea – The white and black swans depicted on the salt reflected my inner conflicts that I’ve grappled with throughout my journey as a Ballet dancer living between Japan and now the US.” Huttenbach further explains “Ballet has given me structure and a form of expression I adore, but such discipline is a fight against my curiosity of the world”.
Walls’ intentionally used a single dancer to portray both the Black and White swan, as he explained, “Utilising different dancers would have diminished the poignant symmetrical struggle that I aimed to convey in my photography.”
In 2024, Walls intends to feature this series along with other photoshoots from around the world including the New York City Ballet and Australian Ballet and English National Ballet in a coffee table book.
