Architecture nominee

“Art of the Airport Tower” explores the varied forms and functions of air traffic control towers throughout aviation history and interprets them as monumental abstractions, symbols of cultural expression, and testimonies of technological change.

The airport control tower is viewed as a vessel with a powerful presence—watching over the vastness of the airport and sky; a nonjudgmental cultural greeter; a choreographer or conductor of the aircraft dance; a mother bird caring for her flock; and an omniscient, intelligent structure, keeping humans safe.

The complete series covers over 85 contemporary and historical airport control towers in 23 countries. “Art of the Airport Tower” is a now a book with Smithsonian Press and a traveling exhibition.

Carolyn Russo is a recipient of the 9th Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers and the 2016 Tokyo International Photography Awards. She is the author of four photography books: Art of the Airport Tower (Smithsonian Books, Fall 2015), In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight (powerHouse Books, 2007), Artifacts of Flight (Harry N. Abrams, 2003), and Women and Flight: Portraits of Contemporary Women Pilots (Bulfinch Press, 1997). Her photographs have been widely exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Finland, and China.

Russo is a museum specialist and photographer with the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. since 1988 where she creates original photography projects, curates art exhibitions, and acquires art for the museum. She has lectured internationally and was an invited participant with the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland. In 2016, she was an artist in residence at NES in the remote town of Skagaströnd, Iceland.
Carolyn has a B.F.A. in photography and studied in Boston, MA at the Massachusetts College of Art and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts as well as at Richmond College and Heatherly School of Fine Arts in London, England, and the Studio Arts Center International in Florence, Italy.