AIRPORT ROAD | Niki Butcher

The Everglades © 2022

Photographic Story Airport Road is located near an airport that is rarely used in Big Cypress National Preserve. It is surrounded by over a million acres of wilderness and created the beginning of the fight to save this part of the Everglades wilderness. A developer decided that he could create an airport mid-way between Naples and Miami with a very long runway for the new Super Sonic Jets. Because of the large amount of wilderness, the jets could break the sound barrier as they came in for a landing without disturbing humans. Part of the plan was to have a train coming into the airport from Naples and Miami. The Native Americans who lived out in the Everglades/Big Cypress weren’t fond of the idea, neither were the hunters and environmentalists. They all joined together to stop the airport from being built. It took many years of fighting. The developer thought that if he built just one of the runways, no one could stop the rest of the construction. So, today we have one runway which is so long the Shuttlecraft could land in an emergency. Thankfully, because a group of dedicated folks were determined to save this beautiful part of Florida, Big Cypress National Preserve was created in 1974. The Art of Hand Painting Black and White Photographs Niki prints her images on fiber-base black and white mat surface paper in the darkroom, then using Q-tips and cotton balls, she applies a thin coat of oil paint over the surface allowing the image to gently be seen through the oil paint. Archival Print Making Niki’s open edition gicleé artwork is printed on Sunset Bright Velvet Rag matte finish paper using eight archival inks. A state-of-the-art Epson Stylus Pro printer creates deep, rich dark values that hold subtle detail in the shadows as well as bright vivid colors that are truly tropical.