The Journal

Issue date: 11/16/06 Section: LifeStyle

KOST

Each of the 51 photographs spanning the walls of the May Gallery's current exhibit "Window Seat" create for its viewer the sensation of looking out of an airplane's window - not surprising, since that is exactly what they are. Julieanne Kost, a visiting photographer to whom the images belong, has spent the past eight years peering out of airplane windows and photographing what she sees.

Kost describes "Window Seat" as a hybrid of the personal and professional. A spokeswoman for the digital imaging division of Adobe Photoshop since 1993, Kost goes from city to city giving seminars on Adobe software. Her job requires her to travel almost 200 days a year, often by plane. Terrified of flying, Kost said she came to regard her camera as a coping mechanism. She used her camera to turn her nervous energy into a creative outlet.

"My camera served as a sort of buffer between my fear and the necessity of flying for business," Kost said. "As long as I could wedge the camera between myself and the window, I was OK."

Kost said, in the beginning, she only photographed clouds. Eventually, she focused her camera on the landscapes over which she flew, capturing images of mountains, salt flats, agricultural fields and shorelines some 30,000 feet below. Having collected more than 3,000 pictures during her aerial travels, Kost said it will be a challenge to find something she has yet to photograph.

Kost said her favorite photograph in the series was taken during a flight from San Jose, Calif., to Los Angeles in 2004. In the picture, the Pacific coastline's jagged inlets create the outline of a horse. Kost said she considers herself fortunate to have caught the image.

"I'd flown the route between San Jose and Los Angeles a million times," she said. "But this time our route was changed, due to weather, and we flew closer to the coastline."

Kost said all of her pictures were shot with a Nikon camera, using mostly digital photography. She also used various Adobe programs to digitally enhance the sharpness of colors and shapes in her photographs. By applying Adobe to her own pictures, she said her passion for photography is an excellent way to exemplify the merits of using the software.

Senior Jennifer Burgoyne an English and women's studies double major, said the aerial aspect of Kost's photographs made familiar landscapes seem more jarring.

"Photographing your subject from such great heights is a unique way of looking at what would otherwise be mundane," Burgoyne said.

Earlier this year, Kost published a collection of photographs titled "Window Seat: The Art of Digital Photography and Creative Thinking." The book offers readers insight into Kost's creative process, a tutorial on how to use Adobe software and a host of pictures taken from Kost's travels.

Bill Barrett, director of the May Gallery, said when he learned Kost was touring in promotion of her book, he invited the photographer to visit Webster.

Though her pictures are now bound in one volume, Kost said she does not intend to stop taking aerial photographs.

"I can't stop now," Kost said. "What would I do on those long plane flights?"

"Window Seat" will be on display until Nov. 24. The May Gallery's next exhibit is the Photo Imaging Education Association's International Competition, which opens Dec. 1.

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