332nd Fighter Group in Flight, Selfridge Field, Michigan ("At last we are airborne—We take up our battle positions—White wisps pass us—It's glorious up here.") 1943

Gordon Parks made this photograph of the 332nd Fighter Group in Flight at Selfridge Field, Michigan. It’s a sepia toned image, which gives the whole scene a kind of nostalgic filter, but I think it also speaks to the technology of the time. What gets me is the feeling of being both inside and outside the action. You've got the wing of the plane right there, close enough to touch, those rivets casting tiny shadows. But then your eye is drawn up, up to the vast expanse of sky and the distant planes, floating like specks. Parks captures that feeling of simultaneous connection and detachment, of being a small part of something much bigger. That wing in the foreground, it's so tangible, so solid. It anchors us, but it also points us towards the unknown. Like a brushstroke, it directs our gaze, inviting us to imagine what it must have felt like to be up there, soaring through the clouds. You could compare it to Gerhard Richter's blurred photographs of planes, but here there is more humanity, more perspective. It reminds us that art, like life, is an ongoing process of discovery.