Book Review – Passage, by Søren Solkær

Aviation photography naturally goes hand in hand with an interest in aircraft, or being an aviation enthusiast.

Often we’ll have a camera in hand as we spend time at spotting or travelling through airports, and there are countless websites related to photographs of aircraft, or even selling slides and prints of aircraft from pre-digital days.

The mark of a good, or useful, photograph of an aircraft is usually in its clean, side-on composition, with good light and little clutter. It should show the side of the aircraft, with its tail, fuselage and registration clearly in view.

Yet when you think about it, the kind of pictures of aircraft that most often “wow” us, or gain the most ‘likes’ on social media, are the ones that look different; the ones in spectacular light, or showing the impressive power of the aircraft manoeuvring.

We often love to see pictures taken on-board aircraft, which document and remind us of air travel.

So when I was offered a copy of the new book Passage by Søren Solkær, I wasn’t sure whether it would be seen by readers of this site as very interesting, or not interesting enough.

You see, the book is full of Søren’s amazing photographs of aircraft and travel, but none of them follow the typical pattern of side-on profile shots demonstrating the airline livery or noting its registration.

But when I began to look at the pictures, I was immediately swept away because it instantly took me away to the sights and memories of flying – one of the things, as an aviation enthusiast, that I love the most!

If you haven’t heard of him, Søren Solkær is mostly known for his 20 years of photographing the biggest icons from the music and art scene, however, this new book captures some of the most memorable moments of his countless flight journeys.

Søren has what most of us would find appealing – a nomadic life, wandering the globe and travelling by air. Since his livelihood depends on taking photographs, he has chosen to document the views from the aircraft window.

The scenes are wonderfully shot and show the vast array of amazing things you’ll see on a flight. Apart from the different wings of the various aircraft types, which each show their own engineering genius and complexities, the views show airport taxiways and signs; streets, cities and landscapes below; the weather and how it looks from the sky. Interestingly, the date, origin and destination are detailed under each photograph.

There are also some clever photographic techniques and semi abstract images demonstrating travel and flight, and even the monotony and tiredness which often come as part of air travel.

Passage is a large, hardback book of some 160 pages.

It is something I have kept being drawn back to, just to get lost in the images. And I imaging it will stay close at hand for some time – the perfect coffee-table book for the air travel fan.

You can buy Passage here: https://sorensolkaer.com/shop/books

Follow Søren on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sorensolkaer/