Marilyn Bridges, 2003 Women of Discovery Courage Award

"Either do it with a whole heart or don't do it." — Marilyn Bridges

Aerial Photographer

Born: 1948-01-01

Hometown: Allendale, New Jersey

Education: Master of Fine Arts

Achievements

Discoveries: Ancient markings that have never been photographed.

Expeditions: Photographic flights over the antiquities of Peru, Egypt, Turkey, Yucatan, and Greece.

Biography

Marilyn Bridges is an aerial photographer who has captured brilliant images that tell the story of human design, innovation and architecture and document landmark structures made centuries ago and the contours of the earth across the globe.  Her works spans the Nasca lines in Peru and ancient sites in Arizona, New Mexico, South America, England, Egypt and Greece. Marilyn's black and white photographs of man-made landscapes offer a rare view of the relationships that people developed with their land, and her work in small planes is dangerous and exhilarating.

Marilyn Bridges's photography has been shown in over 300 exhibitions worldwide, and is included in over 80 museums and private collections. She is a much sought after aerial landscape photographer with clients in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Her photographs have appeared in major magazines, including Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Traveler, Life, Archaeology, Smithsonian and The New York Times.  Bridges is the author of seven books and has received numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1982), CAPS Grant (1983), NEA Grant, Fulbright Grant '88, and the Makedonas Kostas Award (Greece, 1989).  She was elected a Fellow of The Explorers Club in 1988 and in 1991 received the Medal of Arles, Recontres Internationals de la Photographie.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Plenty of Film

Heroes: Beryl Markham, first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from East to West.