When the $67 million passenger terminal redevelopment project at the state’s largest airport is completed early next year, it will feature the commissioned photography of Arkansas native Matt Bradley.
And, potentially, an image of the Two Rivers Bridge will be part of it. A big part.
Last week, Bradley offered members of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission his thoughts on the huge photograph that will be hung on the east wall of the newly renovated ticket lobby at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field.
The piece of art will be more than 28 feet long and 11 feet tall. Producing a highresolution image that large, Bradley said, poses technical challenges.
Bradley’s ideas stemmed from general directions by commission members andthe architect of the project, Eric Peterson of Architectural Alliance in Minneapolis, who expressed preferences for photographs that would exemplify the city or the region the airport services and the people who live there.
Bradley said he took about a half-dozen “working images” of scenes around Little Rock, centering on the Arkansas River and its people, to give members of the commission’s terminal task force an idea of what the “composition looks like” and the process by which he arrived at the composition he wound up recommending.
At the suggestion of one commissioner, Bradley snapped a series of photographs from the Big Dam Bridge looking west. Stitched together to reach the high resolution needed for so large an image, they show the broad expanse of the river, the Interstate 430bridge and Mount Pinnacle.
“All these areas have beauty, but as far as a photographic composition, I don’t think this is very strong,” Bradley said in the presentation. “It’s mostly water and sky. It’s got Pinnacle in it, which I think is great. But the bridge and horizon line are sort of squished together. I felt like we could do better.”
Still, Bradley agreed that the area was worth exploring, given its stirring scenery.
“I don’t know about you all , but every time I drive across Interstate 430, I always love to look west where the Little Maumelle River comes in,” he said. “Now, the Two Rivers Bridge is there. I just always thought that is one of the prettiest scenes in the whole state, really.”
The first photograph he took was from the Two Rivers Bridge. But, like the image from the Big Dam Bridge, it didn’t work for him, Bradley said.
“It’s of the Little Maumelle River flowing in with Pinnacle in the background,” he said. “Again, it’s a nice natural scene, but there’s no humanity in this, there’s no statement about culture. It’s just kind of blank.”
He studied, but ultimately dismissed, potential images from other vantage pointsalong the river. From the Interstate 430 bridge? Too technically and logistically challenging to pull off, given the swaying on the bridge, the need for a lift, the traffic and the weather.
Bradley also explored other landscapes along the Arkansas River, including a shot of the river itself from a rocky promontory overlooking the river reached via a mountain biking trail “around the old river quarry in North Little Rock,” and an image of the Little Rock skyline from the Veterans Administration facility in North Little Rock, known locally as “Fort Roots.”
Both, he said, were too pedestrian and unimaginative. Bradley was drawn back to the pedestrian bridges.
“How many of you have seen the Two Rivers Bridge at night with the lights on?” he asked. “If you haven’t seen it, trust me, it’s worth the trip. It’s an amazing view. I’m biased. I’m a cyclist, and in my opinion, the Big Dam Bridge and the Two Rivers Bridge has changed central Arkansas.
“In the summer time, if you get to the Two Rivers Bridge parking lot after sunset, you can’t find a parking spot. There are people everywhere. Hikers. Walkers. Cyclists. It’s just a huge asset to central Arkansas.”
Bradley finally settled on a shot of the Two Rivers Bridge taken from the Little Rock Maumelle River withpart of the bridge supports framing Pinnacle Mountain.
“This by far is my favorite,” he said. “And the reason is it shows something that we have in central Arkansas that you can’t find anywhere else in the country, and that is this bridge, and, of course, the Big Dam Bridge.
“Also, we have Pinnacle Mountain. If I think of visual icons of central Arkansas, personally I think of Pinnacle Mountain. I think of the Arkansas River. In my mind, I felt like this was the strongest image that we achieved.”
But the final selection will be left to the commission, whose seven members have their own ideas and preferences.
The two members present at last week’s terminal task force were divided.
“I would have thoughtwe would have had more of downtown instead of just a picture of a bridge,” said Tom Schueck. “That bridge could be anywhere. People walking in here from all over the state and they’re looking at this thing. They don’t know where this bridge is at. They don’t know Pinnacle Mountain. It’s nothing to bring it in to the city of Little Rock.”
But Jimmy Moses, a developer who is credited with helping revitalize downtown Little Rock, thought otherwise.
“I would be the first to argue for a downtown shot,” he said. “However, I think what Matt said is an absolute truth. What’s changed central Arkansas more than anything for the good are our pedestrian bridges and how they really have brought an energy.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 11/19/2012