Lauren Collins profiles aerial photographer George Steinmetz in the April 19 New Yorker

My old pal Cappi Williams over at The New Yorker's PR office flew this my way and my first thought was 'who hasn't lashed him or herself to dangerous flying things for purposes of photographic exploration at one time or another?' If you're like me this article will inspire memories of endless hours spent hanging precariously from power lines waiting for the utility crew to cut you down.

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George Steinmetz’s Aerial Alchemy
In “Angle of Vision” (p. 70), Lauren Collins travels to the Sahara to profile George Steinmetz, a freelance photographer famous for his exploration and aerial photography. Steinmetz takes the majority of his photographs using a motorized paraglider, which he refers to as a “flying lawn chair.” Collins writes, “He never flies for fun, but the apparatus has a back-yardish feel: picture a man with a leaf blower on his back, encircled by a metal hula hoop, dangling at altitudes of up to six thousand feet under a tomato-colored beach umbrella.” Steinmetz told Collins, “I’m a photographer who flies, not a pilot who takes pictures.” The paraglider gives him a unique advantage. Collins explains, “Cruising above a field of fairy circles in Namibia a few years ago, he spotted some grazing zebra. ‘I was able to herd them where I wanted them to be, like it was a rodeo,’ he recalled.”

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