/ Modified mar 6, 2014 4:51 p.m.

Exhibit Reveals Historic, Natural Landscapes From Above

Images "represent heritage we all share," says aerial photographer Adriel Heisey, currently displayed at Arizona State Museum.

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VIDEO: AZPM

It can be said air travelers fall into two distinct groups: those who choose the aisle seats and those who choose the window seats in order to get a view of the passing landscape bellow.

Adriel Heisey belongs to the latter, and he’s taken his love of the "bird’s eye view" seat to new heights.

Heisey earned his pilot’s license at age 16, and he's now a commercial pilot with thousands of hours of flight time. He’s also a photographer, who has dedicated much of his life to documenting the Southwest landscape from an aerial perspective.

“I take off, go out… I slow down, open the door, I look at my subject…and I think of the Dr. Seuss line: 'oh the places you will go,’” Heisey said.

Heisey’s aerial photographs of historic landscapes and archaeological sites are the subject of a traveling exhibit featured at the Arizona State Museum in the University of Arizona campus, titled “From Above: Images of a Storied Land."

Heisey said the exhibit is the result of a working partnership with Archaeology Southwest, a Tucson-based conservation nonprofit.

“The concept was to convey this work from four states in the American Southwest, and two states in Mexico,” Heisey said. “To represent the heritage that, as modern humanity, we all share.”

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