Held By Air

About this piece

A vast black banner bearing the Union Jack and the words “ARMY BE THE BEST” fills the blue sky, flanked by three parachutists and pink smoke trails. Sunlight picks out the creases of the banner and the inflated panels of the red, white and black canopies. The close framing gives the fabric monumental scale, balancing its dark weight against the apparent lightness of the figures.

The story

In the clear light of late May, pink smoke draws dissolving lines across the sky. The great black banner billows, its folds catching narrow seams of brightness. Around it, red canopies hold their curved shapes against the blue, with fine suspension lines stretching toward the figures below. For a moment, the descent reads as stillness: cloth, bodies and smoke sharing the same open air.