Katrin Korfmann’s Aerial Photos of People

German-born and Amsterdam-based artist Katrin Korfmann loves taking photos of human life, from a height. But unlike many aerial photographers who fly on small planes, Korfmann’s techniques are modest. She shoots from cranes, and when cranes are not possible, she sends her camera up in a remote-controlled helicopter.

Katrin Korfmann takes multiple images and then blends them together to produce the final image, a task that can take two to three months working with 500 to 2,000 shots. Since the pictures are often taken at different times, Korfmann has to manipulate the shadows and exposure to create an image that appears to have been taken at one point in time.

“In the bird’s-eye view people look alike,” Korfmann said in an interview to Slate. “The idea is to create two dimensions: one when you see it from far away and another when you zoom in and see it from very close. Then you see all the differences: in the clothes they wear, the things they carry.”