Up in the Air: Kite Photography

The field of kite aerial photography started around the late 1800s, giving photo buffs their first birds-eye view of the world. Used by photographers to capture novel views of cities, kite photography also served as a tool for war reconnaissance, and to assess the extent of San Francisco’s damage after the 1906 earthquake. In a time when cityscapes can be uploaded by any airline passenger with a digital camera, Argentianian Esteban Pastorino Diaz, who trained as a mechanical engineer before taking up photography full-time, gives us a slightly different view of the earth from 150 feet in the air. Building his own pinhole cameras, lashing them to kites and capturing images by radio controlled shutter-makers, Diaz makes cars, boats and beaches appear to be part of carefully designed miniature toy train set. His work provides us a fresh perspective on our world.

To view more work by Esteban Pastorino Diaz, visit pdnbgallery.com