Up Close: Boneyard

Photographer Greg White visits an airplane graveyard in Tucson, Arizona, and finds pathos in once-powerful birds of the sky now grounded from duty.

  • Words + Photography: Greg White

Returning from an assignment in the depths of California, I passed by this plane graveyard in the Mojave Desert. Something has always appealed to me about the resting places of these incredible machines.

I have wanted to visit and photograph the very large graveyard in Tucson, Arizona, for as long as I can remember, but the military bureaucracy stands in the way. This, however, was privately owned, and I was allowed a short tour in which I shot as many frames as I could. The place was eerily silent but for the sound of metal creaking, as parts from planes swayed in the breeze. There is something quite poignant about these once-powerful birds of the sky that now lie rested from duty.

Greg White is a photographer based in London.

Article taken from

Issue 03
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