Photographer Dustin Snipes reinterprets magical Marfa Lights

Photographer Dustin Snipes reinterprets magical Marfa Lights posted: 30/12/2020

Californian captures unidentified Flying Air Force above vast Texan landscape.

The unexplainable visual phenomenon known as the Marfa Lights have entranced people in the night sky above Texas for 137 years with acclaimed American photographer Dustin Snipes reinterpreting the marvel with the help of the Red Bull Air Force. Some people believe they are spirits of fallen warriors or paranormal phenomena like ghosts, UFOs and will-o-the-wisp, while scientists see them as either natural gases emitted from the earths core or atmospheric reflections of vehicle headlights and campfires.

Whatever way you look at them, the orbs of light that seemingly float just above the horizon of the remote city of Marfa are breathtaking which is why Snipes wanted to capture his own take during a New Moon pitch black night illuminated by the glowing Milky Way galaxy.

The lack of light pollution ensures the night sky is vast and oceanic with Snipes recruiting the Red Bull Air Force to dive in unison like falling comets through the night.

Here is what the Californian and Red Bull Air Force captain Jon DeVore had to say about this unique project:

What were the major challenges for you two on a mission like this?

Snipes: There were a lot of options. We could have created these lighting conditions a bunch of different ways. So at the end of it, we had to decide what was the most important element for us to capture. I think having a very clear, beautiful night sky was on the top of the list. Looking at it from the perspective of, Do we want this to look like people, or do we want them to look like look like something else? - it really questions what youre looking at. Trying to reverse engineer how we were going to get that look was definitely the most difficult because its something Ive never shot before. Knowing who the Red Bull Air Force were, and what they could do under these conditions also played a part in it. There were a lot of unknowns, but every time the Red Bull Air Force and Jon and I had talked to each other, I felt more and more comfortable.

DeVore: Typically, when we do night jumps, we can spot the ground pretty well because were either doing a show over a city where theres at least some identifiable locations on the ground. This location literally was blackout dark on the ground. We drove two pickup trucks to our landing area and put headlights on, which yes, when youre standing on the ground, that that looks like enough light. But when youre 10,000 feet in the air looking down, they look like tiny little dots of light. At least during our first jump, that was a little difficult to distinguish. That was the first challenge for sure. Secondly, its really challenging to communicate with a guy once you exit the aircraft. Sure, we have some lights on us and weve learned throughout the years how to spot each other pretty well, but to get together under canopy or in freefall, it just takes a lot more of a coordinated effort to be able to get together because there are less visuals. Thirdly, would be trying to understand Dustins vision from an artists point of view and how we could choreograph our dives to best suit his dream or what he was trying to capture, combined with what we were trying to do performance-wise. So, it definitely wasnt an easy one, but it all came together.

Jon, whats happening mid-jump or what's that feel like while you're doing manoeuvres like this?

DeVore: In this type of a project, youre looking outside, its loud, its noisy, its windy, and in this instance, it was also cold. Then you look out and your adrenaline starts to get going because especially on this one, youre looking down, and you see two little dots of light youre believing are your trucks. Now, you cant mess this spot up. Theres no other visual reference on the ground before you exit, you cant see anything else other than those two dots. Initially, that beginning is the most important part. When you exit, theres a lot that comes through muscle memory because all of us on the team have around 21,000 jumps. Weve been doing it a long time and have a lot of air time. Then you're actioning out, jumping out of the plane. You look back up as everybody else is actioning out, you see everybodys pyro firing. At least my point of view, I get excited or happy at that point. I realize the dive is working where everyones pyro fired, theres no malfunctions. Everyone is in the formation that we had discussed and spreading apart like a starburst in the sky. That initial freefall and choreography is definitely muscle memory. But once you start to track away from everyone and youre on your own while youre deploying your parachute, thats when everything gets surreal. You pull your parachute, everything slows down, the parachute stops you to pretty much a halting speed. Then, everythings quiet. You can start to really calm down and look around and realise what it feels like up there in outer space. And then you have to start looking around and scanning where youre picking up your teammates. Thats an intense moment because you can run each other over, and thatd be horrible. Then obviously, things go well, you get together, and then its back into muscle memory mode where were all human pilots flying our parachutes - our bodies - and we get together. When you see it all working like clockwork, the nerves calm down and excitement picks up and youre just excited that youre pulling it off. And then the real deal comes where youre landing. Especially in this environment, just having little headlights from a truck lighting the ground. Thats a depth perception mental trip because the grounds coming up real fast. Obviously on parachutes we have no motors, so were landing with engines out basically. Coming in on approach and landing and making sure yo

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