GAZING at these winter landscapes, do you see lines carved by nature or humans? It's hard to tell – which is exactly what aerial photographer Kacper Kowalski wants.
"I love to see this border between nature and human activity," says Kowalski, who took the shots in Pomerania, north-west Poland, where he lives. To capture some images, he dangled from his paraglider. For others, he used his gyroplane – a small, open-air helicopter that resembles a flying motorcycle. Such detail wouldn't be possible from an ordinary plane because the windows would get in the way.
It isn't easy to operate a camera while braving the cold and wind, particularly in the paraglider. "The most uncomfortable thing is that I have to have my hands on the brakes for control, which are above my heart, so blood doesn't flow to my hands," he says. But such hurdles help to make his images unique: "Even pilots don't often see this winter landscape."
The image at the very top shows a stream snaking through a snow-covered field dotted with trees. It's in contrast to the image just above: Kowalski thinks this thin black ribbon, at the edge of a lake, is human made. Bordered by what look like piles of snow, it is probably a path dug by ice fishers to make crossing the ice easier. In the image below, the black lines are once again natural, the result of water seeping up through splits in the ice on a lake.
The uncertainty over what is natural fits with Kowalski's desire to fire our imaginations. "People see so many things, and it is so hard to surprise them," he says. "I like not having too much information about the situation because then the image is working for longer."
This article appeared in print under the headline "Pure imagination"
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