En Pointe

Artist Brad Walls Is Anything But Passé

By Jordan Staggs | Photography by Brad Walls

The scene in the large New York City warehouse was literally something out of a dream as visual artist Brad Walls rolled out the red carpet for over sixty ballerinas from the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the Joffrey Ballet School, and Ballet East. His dream came to life as the football field-sized set filled with dancers, directed by Walls and choreographer Ian Schwaner, who meticulously placed each one to create a series of intricate scenes. Walls photographed them from above in his signature aerial style.

WWalls describes the energy on set during the photo shoot as electric. “You could feel this quiet intensity in the room,” he recalls. “There was so much trust, because everyone knew they were part of something bigger. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous—coordinating sixty dancers under a crane rig with a giant red carpet is no small feat—but once I saw that first aerial preview, everything clicked. It felt exactly as I’d imagined it in my head for years.”

Visual artist Brad Walls at the opening exhibition of his ballet series PASSÉ. Photo by David Courbit

The idea for this striking red-and-white ballet series, which Walls named PASSÉ, began with what he calls “a moment of unexpected vulnerability” during a ballet shoot in 2021. While he was working with ballerina Montana Rubin, a group of young triplets approached the dancer and expressed how much they loved her craft and how they had been emotionally moved by watching her. “That moment hit me,” Walls says. “It reminded me that ballet, while celebrated for its perfection, is also deeply human. This project is about honoring that—about making the distance between performer and viewer disappear.”

An Australian-born visual artist who now calls New York City home, Walls has been heralded for his aerial photography, which has been exhibited in galleries and projects around the world. But he didn’t always know it was his calling. “I’ve always been drawn to structure, balance, and rhythm, which I think is what eventually led me to aerial photography,” he explains. “My background wasn’t traditionally in art; I worked in the tech and product world for years, but photography was this constant side obsession that grew and grew. When I bought my first drone camera, I realized it allowed me to compose the world almost like a painter with a new kind of brush, shaping geometry and light from above.”

Golden Ratio

Walls harnessed his newfound love of aerial photography and began building bodies of work, including his series Pools from Above and Vacant, which have been lauded worldwide. (Pools from Above is also available as a coffee-table book!) Realizing his new craft had become more than a hobby, Walls decided to build his brand into a full-time, full-service creative practice, Bradscanvas. His subjects have included synchronized swimmers and other athletes, models shot from above in desert and beach settings or in the stands at sports arenas, landscapes, architecture, and more, always presented from a unique viewpoint inspired by the intersection of space, symmetry, and form.

“I see the world in lines, patterns, and spacing, almost like choreography,” says Walls. “Sometimes I construct scenes meticulously, like PASSÉ, where every dancer, color, and negative space is deliberate. Other times, I find the geometry naturally on rooftops, beaches, courts—places where symmetry already exists, waiting to be framed.”

He continues, “It’s about restraint: knowing when to simplify, when to leave something out. I’m always trying to reduce the world to its essential shapes, and that’s where the beauty usually lives.”

The Big One

PASSÉ is the largest project Walls has undertaken so far. It required months of planning, following the initial idea he had envisioned during the photo shoot with Montana Rubin. Step one was finding the dancers he needed to complete the scenes. “I reached out to ballet schools and companies across New York, from professionals to students, and slowly, a community formed around the idea,” says Walls. “I wanted PASSÉ to represent the broader ballet ecosystem, not just one company. We ended up with sixty dancers from all over the city.” Several of the models were leads and senior dancers from their companies, including Tillie Glatz, Sylvie Squires, Aleisha Walker, Nieve Corrigan, Sierra Armstrong, Sara Heller, Roberta Messi, Sofiia Maltseva, Grace Buttimore, Miriam Nsangu, Julia Felipi, Taylor Gordon, Ayne Kim, Olivia Leigh, apiccii, and Chloe Fisher.

Walls continues, “Every detail was considered: the wardrobe, the spacing, even the color of the carpet (Pantone 1805C red). I worked closely with the choreographer, Ian, to create the shapes.” Thanks to a crew of twenty others assisting and a custom crane rig brought into the warehouse, the result, as you can see, is a striking visual feast for the eyes. The dancers align with the utmost precision to form lines, spirals, circles, and patterns, their white classical tutus forming a stark contrast against the bright red backdrop.

Calling himself “a minimalist in post,” Walls says he prefers to meticulously perfect everything in-camera, spending months before each shoot planning color palettes, lighting direction, and layout so the editing process is light. “In post, I mostly fine-tune. It’s about enhancing what’s already there, not creating something new.” Of the twenty scenes the team shot for this project, eight made it into the opening exhibition and the first limited-edition print run, though Walls says with a smile, “There are another five or six hanging around,” which he might release at a later date.

He celebrated the release of PASSÉ by inviting guests to an immersive exhibit from September 12 to 14, 2025, at 347 Broome Street in the Bowery, where the scene was re-created with a red carpet and walls forming a new perspective of the backdrop, surrounded by the completed photographs.

“I wanted an immersive red room. The audience could literally stand where the dancers once were,” says Walls. “The response was overwhelming. People described it as cinematic, hypnotic, and emotional. For me, seeing those large-scale prints on the walls felt like closure. It was a full-circle moment: the idea that lived in my head, then in that warehouse, now existed in the world.”

In what he calls the “final stage of connection,” Walls says seeing his work displayed in someone’s home or other space never gets old. “The image leaves my control and starts a new life. Whether it’s in a collector’s home or a hotel lobby, it means the work resonates beyond me, and that’s the whole point.”

Regarding what’s coming up next for him, Walls says, “I’m always exploring new intersections of design and movement. I have a few large-scale ideas in development, including one blending sport and sculpture, and another merging architecture with human form.” His last project might be PASSÉ, but the sky’s the limit for the future of this innovative visual artist.

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Limited-edition prints of PASSÉ and other works are available at Bradscanvas.com. Follow @bradscanvas on Instagram to learn more, see more work by Brad Walls, and stay up to date on exhibitions.