Latitude Image partners and aerial photographers Nicolas Chorier, Jean-Marc Brunet, and Laurent Salomon bring Latitude Image back to where aerial photography all began: France.
According to the Professional Aerial Photographers Association (PAPA), the first known aerial photograph was taken over the small French village of Petit-Becetre by Gaspar “Nadar” Felix Tournachon in 1858. Hovering 80 meters above the ground in a tethered hot-air balloon, Nadar took the photo using the early collodion process. That meant, essentially, that Nadar had to set up a darkroom in the basket of the balloon in order to capture the shot. And, with the fragility of that original method, there are no surviving photos to showcase Nadar’s work.
Luckily, photography equipment and the means by which artists can get that equipment up in the air have come a long way since Nadar’s day. Today, men and women can use digital cameras (no darkroom necessary there) while flying in fixed-wing aircrafts, helicopters, blimps, parachutes, or paragliders; or send their remote-controlled camera-wielding crafts into the air while they retain command from the ground.
Nicolas Chorier uses that last technique with his custom-designed kite which carries a digital SLR in a small cradle tied to the kite’s string. From the ground, Nicolas uses a video-linked remote that allows him to see what the camera is seeing. Exactly when he’s framed his image, he can click a button on the remote control as if it were the camera itself. Through this method, he’s captured entirely unique perspectives of Paris, Montpellier, Nimes, and Aigues-Mortes.
Fellow French photographers Jean-Marc Brunet and Laurent Salomon use a similar kite-inspired technique: powered paragliding. A significant difference between their technique and Nicolas’ is that they put themselves in the cradle suspended from the kite in the sky. Also, with the advent of the powered paraglider, they are able to keep themselves up in the air for much longer than a traditional paraglider or Nicolas’ kite, both of which are dependent on the wind.
With the advantage of the extended flight time and maneuverability, Jean-Marc and Laurent are able to suspend themselves in the skies over French beauties like Corsica, Mont Saint-Michel, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Britagne, Montaigu, and the oyster sites along the Tremblade Channel to capture one-of-a-kind aerial photography.