The Albuquerque Balloonist
I’m working on this project as an independent artist and writer and I need your help to get it across the finish line. In addition to investing thousands of hours of my time into this project, I spend hundreds of dollars a month on fuel as I travel between meetings and ballooning events in and outside of Albuquerque. This work puts wear on my electronic equipment and my vehicle which I need to maintain to continue this project. Please consider making a donation so that I can invest the best of my resources into this work. Donors will be mentioned in a dedicated section in the book and on the website!
The Albuquerque Balloonist is a multi-year ethnographic documentary and art project spearheaded by artist, social scientist, and balloonist Bryce Risley. The outputs of this project will include a collectable, hard cover book publication, a series of museum quality collectable fine art photos, a website dedicated to archiving the culture of ballooning in Albuquerque and the stories of balloonists, and more!
The Albuquerque Balloonist is my latest photo/writing project. I began this project after returning home from grad school and reuniting with my friends in the Albuquerque ballooning community. I soon realized that a number of my friends whom I’d flown and crewed with as a young balloonist since 2008 were leaving the sport. Some had moved from New Mexico, others are experiencing various health problems that prevent them from flying, and more than a few have succumb to old age. According to the Balloon Training Academy, 80% of all balloonists are age 60 and older. These balloonists may find it harder to lift a hundred kilos of balloon envelope or gondola, or recover from bumps and bruises resulting from a rough, high-wind landing. Seeing the unique circumstances facing Albuquerque balloonists today and the need to collect data on the social history and culture of this community, I’m endeavoring to publish two books focusing on the lifestyles of balloonists. This project invites people to share how Albuquerque has influenced and shaped their relationships with hot air balloons and with each other. The books will also explore how ballooning has influenced non-balloonists such as local artists and business owners, law enforcement, and even tribal relations with the Sandia and Isleta Pueblos. In addition to my own photography, the book will include images shared by other balloonists along with stories from dozens of balloonists I’ve interviewed, young and old alike. Of added importance, The Albuquerque Balloonist will also serve as the first census ever taken of the Albuquerque ballooning community. This census will gather demographic data on the community in an effort to establish a baseline to understand what the community looks like today for reference by historians and future generations of balloonists.
Ballooning has been an important part of Albuquerque’s history and culture since the 1970’s. In fact, Albuquerque has been designated the hot air balloon capitol of the world. As such, the city boasts the largest community of hot air balloonists in the world. In 1972, a group of local pilots organized what would become the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (AIBF). Now beyond the event’s 50th anniversary, some of the surviving early generation balloonists have retired from the sport after flying AIBF one last time. Albuquerque’s ever expanding developments are making it harder for balloonists to find safe places to land in the city. As a result, most balloonists plan their flights to the north in Rio Rancho where landing opportunities are more abundant and airspace more accommodating. Now Rio Rancho is also developing at a rapid pace. The affordability of ballooning is a deterrent for many prospective pilots. Some balloonists are speculating that the sport will become exclusive to individuals with more substantial income.
Among multiple motivations for this project is a recognition that the social and cultural makeup of the Albuquerque ballooning community is transforming at an accelerating pace. While change is inevitable and a constant in life, there is a need to document the personal stories of Albuquerque balloonists. Ballooning literature often focuses on events like the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and its history and the individuals who were crucial to its organization. A number of fantastic books have been written with a focus on famous lighter-than-air aviators such as Sid Cutter, Richard and Ben Abruzzo, or the Montgolfier brothers Etienne and Joseph. To the detriment of the public’s understanding of the balloonist lifestyle and culture, these books are too narrowly focused on the personal experience’s of early day balloonists, and are often written for niche audiences like other balloonists or aviation enthusiasts. What’s needed is a more self aware publication written for a global audience that is candid, graphic, unavoidably irreverent, and representative of the next generation’s entry into ballooning. As a cultural anthropologist might study and describe a seaside village community losing it’s population to age and climate change in rural Japan, there is immense value in documenting the vast social history and culture of the world’s largest community of balloonists before it becomes unrecognizable from its historic norm. How are the experiences of balloonists, young and old, changing in a rapidly changing world?
For this project I’ll be using many of the same social science research methods I relied on while collecting data in Sri Lanka for my Masters thesis. Having been working on The Albuquerque Balloonist project for 2.5 years now, I have been scheduling interviews and photoshoots with members of the community in the Albuquerque area and in some cases out of state. I’ll be sharing content from this project on the Blog page of this website. Each blog post will focus on a different theme related to the cultural influence and community experience of the Albuquerque ballooning community.
Check back for future updates on The Albuquerque Balloonist! If you’re a balloonist of any age, pilot or crew, with history in Albuquerque and you’d like to share your story for this project, please contact me by email at contact@brycerisleyphotography.com
Thank you for your interest in my project and Bryce Risley Photography.
Check back often to follow progress on The Albuquerque Balloonist!
Interviews
Headshots
Portraits
What type of chile do Albuquerque balloonists prefer?
Red
Green
Christmas
None