Adam Senatori, a University of Wisconsin alum and Madison native, makes a flight nearly every week over the isthmus for his career as an aerial photographer, and probably for a little fun as well.
In addition to frequently photographing Madison and the Chicago metropolitan area, Senatori shows people rugged locations like Glacier National Park and concrete jungles like Los Angeles from a perspective far above the earth.
Senatori, whose parents both worked in the art world, seemed destined down this path. But he did not join the field in earnest until he was faced with making a career change in 2007.
After graduating from UW with a degree in behavioral science and law, Senatori briefly floated around the idea of law school before instead pursuing his then-lifelong goal of being a commercial pilot. He said he had always been fascinated with airplanes as a child.
But after the commercial airline industry tanked, leaving Senatori without a job, he said he decided to muster up his creative side and began heading down a new path as a photographer.
“I walked away from a job that I worked long and hard at, but the notion of having one job forever to me is not realistic anymore,” he said. “You’ve got to be prepared to follow different things.”
He said when he began work as a flight instructor after ending his career with the airlines, he simply started taking snapshots out the window of a small aircraft and gradually became more serious after others suggested he continue with the work.
“When I started posting photos on Instagram three years ago, it really took off,” Senatori said. “It was worlds colliding, me flying and trying to establish myself as a photographer.”
Senatori’s photographs have gained him over 800,000 Instagram followers. He describes his collection of sweeping mountain landscapes, modern city centers, rows of houses and spaghetti-like freeways as almost scientific in nature.
While he would not call his work minimalist, he said some of those influences do make their way into his photographs, especially those taken directly overhead.
“I’m influenced by old aerial photographs from the early 1900s when you see huge cityscapes from a blimp or balloon, like shots of San Francisco and Chicago from the air,” he said. “That’s what I want 50 years from now, for people to look at my photos and see they are not overly processed. What you see is what you get.”
While hesitant to choose one over the other, Senatori said he slightly prefers photographs of cityscapes over natural areas because they allow the viewer to dive into the photo more so than in a photo of nature.
He said taking photos of cityscapes directly overhead further augments the viewers’ experiences, allowing them to spend more time examining what they’re seeing.
“Aerial invites the viewer to let their brain process a different perspective, whereas the ground-based photos don’t quite have that feeling,” he said.
While he said not flying commercially anymore is a bit strange to him, it does not really surprise him he’s not where he started out.
“I’m in a really good place now,” he said. “I’m still a pilot and am still teaching and am a full time photographer. In a way, I feel like I’m getting both.”
