BREATHTAKING: Frenchman Nicholas Chorier merges technology with art.
BANGALORE: His Canon 4D camera perched on a cradle under the kite, Frenchman Nicholas Chorier prepared for his next shoot. The lighting was perfect, the height just right. Strings attached, the kite soared higher. Life was one big panoramic view. Chorier adjusted the camera angle, tilted it a bit with his remote device, got the composition just right with his video monitor. And then, Chorier shot his picture of the day.
The wind was his boss, the earth his canvas. Chorier’s breathtaking aerial photography from his self-designed kite had the magic of the air, the eye of the bird and the scale of the world. It was art, Chorier-graphed in the sky. Kite-flying couldn’t have got anymore visual.
Captured in print, published as a book “Kite’s Eye View of India: Between Earth and Sky,” Chorier’s kite-flying imagery had Bangaloreans enthralled on Wednesday. Releasing the book, Minister for Rural Development C.M. Udasi certified the aesthetic appeal of his photographs and recognised Chorier’s method as a tool to boost India’s rich tourist potential.
But Chorier was modest. The concept was not his. That was perfected way back in 1888, and used by Europeans and Americans during the pre-first world war era. Chorier’s craft was in the redesign, in the remote radio and video monitor that helped him control the camera from the ground beneath.
Ten summers ago, Chorier had linked his love for photography with his fascination for everything that flew. Merging technology with art, he polished the technique.
Work brought him to India, a land of monuments and arresting landscapes. “I fell in love with India, it had so much to offer from the North to the South,” he recalled.
Camera
That was enough for him to deposit his camera high up there in the sky, and capture breathtaking views from the Kumbh Mela to the Taj Mahal, the Mehrengarh Fort in Jodhpur to the Kovalam beach in Kerala.
Forty-five year-old Chorier had used the technique in fields as varied as agronomy and archaeology, national heritage surveys and wildlife documentaries. Each of these applications eventually led him to devise tailor-made hardware and photographic techniques. His pictures on the Nagaur Fort were part of a report that received the UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Award for architectural conservation.
Printer friendly
page Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
