Photographer and author of Kite's Eye View: India between Earth and Sky, Frenchman Nicholas Chorier specialises in Kite Aerial Photography (KAP). Soaring to vantage points in the vast empyrean, his shooting rig has captured places, colours and people in their evocative best. In an e-mail interview with Ravi Inder Singh, Chorier lets fly his experiences with the flying camera…
What does your unique style of photography entail in terms of technical requirements, like the type of camera you use, and limitations?
I do aerial photography by using a kite to lift my camera. I build my own kites after the famous Japanese kites "Rokkaku", with the largest reaching about 40 square feet. They are made out of siliconised nylon and carbon or fibreglass sticks. I have adapted the traditional pattern of these kites to suit my own needs and their proportions and designs vary, depending on weather conditions. The photographic equipment is mounted on a small cradle hanging on the line under the kite. The camera can be lifted up to a thousand feet, though low altitudes are often more interesting. This whole rig weighs about two kg, depending on the lens I mount, or some extra battery. Currently I use a Canon 5D Mark2, with a 24mm lens, but did use for years a medium format film camera, a Fuji GA645, with 45 or 60mm lenses. This cradle with the camera is operated by remote control and can achieve a full 360 degree rotation and 90 degree tilt. An air-to-ground video link sends a signal which provides real-time monitoring on a portable TV screen, for accurate framing.
Once my kite is flying nice and smooth, I rig up my camera on the line, about 100 feet below the kite. The whole apparatus can then be flown up to the required height. I hold the kite string under my arm, carry my remote control on one shoulder and a video monitor around my neck. I can easily walk several hundred yards and raise or lower the kite in order to find different shooting angles and position my camera above the subject at will.
What really inspired your unique perspective?
I mainly decided to combine two of my major passions, kite flying and photography. But KAP already existed. The first man who did this was Arthur Batut, in 1888, in south of France. I first tried it during my first trip in India in 1996, and then became addicted to it. Apart from the results, it is also rewarding, physically and mentally, to set up my kites on a site, and launch my rig. As I'm very concerned about ecology and saving our natural resources, I have always loved the idea of just using wind to do such an activity, compared to wasting kerosene in a helicopter, or helium with a balloon.
From above, it's a completely new vision, new perspectives, new ways to understand the landscape, the heritage... Kites can carry my camera very close to roofs, clock towers, domes, buildings and show a close view of details. It also makes it possible to approach human beings, and some fauna, very closely, without disturbing at all. I always use wide angle lenses, which shows our earth from a very unusual angle.
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