a drone and an introverted wallflower photograph earth from above

‘earth from above’ is karen jerzyk’s first stab at drone photography — a genre often reserved for landscape photography and b-roll — which she has reverse-engineered to capturing whimsical masterpieces from surreal sketches. this particular DJI mavic pro 2 drone is a lucky one — purchased by any other, and it might be destined to fly over hills and coastlines to take the same photos as its brothers and sisters. with a self-proclaimed wallflower as a best friend, this drone has the proud courtesy of capturing karen’s meticulously crafted stories. 

all images courtesy of karen jerzyk and her new drone

ideas of overhead photography would come to her before she ever owned a drone and until recently these ideas existed only in sketchbooks. ‘I’ve wanted a drone for many years now, but never had enough money to purchase one,’ says karen jerzyk. ‘finally, it seemed like the right time for me to purchase one. I was starting to get bored of shooting everything at a “normal” perspective, and I noticed a lot of people local to me were taking huge liberties in using a lot of elements from my work (basically, using my photos as a blueprint for their own work). typically when this happens, it pushes me into thinking of a plan to shoot in a way that would be difficult to mimic, is still true to my style, and is different from anything else I’ve seen that’s been put out in the world. I figured, why not pull the trigger and finally get a drone?’ now, with her new DJI mavic pro 2, she has breathed some of her trickier ideas to life.