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Daniel Lezano speaks
to aviation ace Phil Makanna about his
latest aerial masterpiece, GHOSTS 2004.
There are good aviation photographers,
there are brilliant aviation photographers and then there’s Phil Makanna. With true
American grit and determination, Makanna delivers dynamic, breathtaking images that
are faster, bigger, bolder and brighter than any other aircraft photographer can
muster.
Forget photographing planes from the ground, if you really want to create pictures
that propel themselves from the page, you’ve got to get up there and shoot 'air to
air'. And that's where Makanna truly excels.
Like some modern-day Red Baron, but armed with a couple of fast-shooting Nikon F4s,
rather than a pair of bullet-spewing machine-guns, Makanna — with an accuracy of
aim and perfection of timing that fighter aces would eject their co-pilot for — hits
the target almost every time.
As Makanna explains, every picture in his calendar is a new piece of work, and not
dug out from his very extensive library. "Each GHOSTS calendar is the culmination
of a year’s work and represents my favourite images from the thousands that I have
taken. I begin shooting in the spring, usually in April, and finish around October,
which gives me enough time to work through all my images and select my favourites."
That, as you might expect, isn’t a particularly easy task for Makanna. "I'm
not sure exactly how many images I have to run through to make it down to the final
selection of 14 images, but a guess would be around 175 rolls of 36-exposure films,
which means around 6300 frames."
There's a brief pause before Makanna says "My oh my, when you think about it,
that's not a very efficient ratio, is it?" As Makanna explains, whittling down
the choice has as much as to do with his personal preferences of particular images
as it has to removing all the unsharp, blurred or badly-exposed shots. |
"With this type of photography, there's an awful lot of wastage,
but I almost always touch- down knowing that I've got a great shot. Because I'm up
in the air a countless number of times each year, I always have a tough task ahead
of me in making the very final selection for the GHOSTS calendar. Ultimately, I have
to choose the 14 images that I think are the most challenging. They boast the strongest
impact, are well- constructed and most importantly are sharp."
Taking sharp, well-composed images and beautifully composed pictures is tough enough
on the ground, so Makanna deserves major credit for his achievements in the air.
And, if ever an advert was needed for the quality of 35mm, and more specifically
Nikon optics and Fuji Velvia slide film, Makanna’s images are it. Bearing in mind
that the pictures are taken hand-held, with Makanna usually hanging out of a bumpy
old aircraft, its amazing to think that the result can be blown up for use in a calendar
measuring nearly 20x16in.
He may not boast the glamour and the limelight like Tom Cruise, but there’s no doubt
that Phil Makanna is the Top Gun when it comes to aviation photography. At 63, he
has seen his fair share of the action, with thrilling moments, near-misses and several
crashes to his name,but that’s another tale to tell another time.
If you like what you see, you'll be glad to know that there will be a major interview
with Phil Makanna in Photography Monthly early in the New Year. If you can't wait
until then, visit Makanna’s official website at www.GHOSTS.com |
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PHIL MAKANNA BIOGRAPHY
 •Born in New York City, USA, in 1940.
•Married to wife Jean, Phil is father to two children; a daughter Christie and son,Nicholas.
•Career highlights include 17 one-man exhibitions and 26 group exhibitions of paintings,
sculptures and photographs, four GHOSTS books, 24 GHOSTS calendars, five films, nine
major film awards and various grants and fellowships. |
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