Drone Photography and the Re-aestheticisation of Nature

Abstract

Drones offer the possibility to depict places from perspectives difficult to achieve. They make visible an order of forms, patterns and relationships that, from the surface is either difficult or impossible to have. Although originally developed as a military technology, and hence highly restricted to military prac- tices, drones are currently more accessible for a wider range of users. Perhaps, drone pho- tography and its recent popularisation are the most outstanding evidences of how the use of this technology has experienced a shift from the military to the civil arena. Both, the altitude and the proximate perspective that drones achieve, make the drone picturing a renewed challenge. Assuming that each tech- nology of vision organises what we observe with our eyes, I will explore how drone photography is picturing nature. By focusing on the visual universe displayed under the category Nature on Dronestagram, a website devoted to drone images, I will identify some of the mechanisms upon which drone photog- raphy is reshaping the geographical imagina- tions of nature.