Launched in late-2017, the DJI Drone Photography Award called for project ideas that would make creative use of a drone to explore new photographic possibilities. In capturing subject matters impossible to reach on foot, the drone-shot work would open the viewer’s eyes to new possibilities, making them consider the world from alternative perspectives.
As winners of the award, Markel Redondo and Tom Hegen were each provided with a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone and the financing to realise their projects, amongst other prizes. Throughout April selected images from the series will be on display at theprintspace gallery in Dalston, east London.
Redondo first photographed Spain’s abundance of abandoned housing developments in 2010. Now, eight years later, he has retraced his footsteps. Sand Castles (part II) documents a handful of the estimated 3.4 million houses that stand empty and deserted throughout Spain. The developments – built in bucolic, and now largely deserted, surrounds to avoid the tourist traps of the country – were, according to Redondo, constructed by developers in “a dizzying rush to make the most of cheap loans and favourable government regulation.” They now litter the landscape.
The Salt Series, a project by Hegen, documents salt production across Europe. The production of sea salt is one of the oldest forms of human intervention in natural spaces,” says Hegen “but we rarely ask where it actually comes from and how it is being produced.” With the use of a drone, Hegen was able to fly above some of Europe’s largest salt production sites and reveal the intricate process that many take for granted.
–
The DJI Drone Photography Award is on display at theprintspace gallery in east London throughout April. The exhibition is open to the public between 06 April and 18 April, between 9:00 am and 7:00 pm Monday to Friday.
The DJI Drone Photography Award is a DJI competition supported by British Journal of Photography. DJI is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end drones. Please click here for more information on sponsored content funding at British Journal of Photography.