Channels of Light

Behind the Flight

I originally travelled to Barcelona to photograph a project for a client, but I always try to leave a few extra days to explore a city on foot. Those are often the days when the ideas for my own work begin to evolve. I wandered through the Gothic Quarter, admired Gaudí's extraordinary architecture, explored markets and cafés, and slowly found myself drawn towards the ordered geometry of the Eixample district.

What fascinated me most were Barcelona's famous superblocks. Unlike many modern cities filled with towering skyscrapers and deep shadows, these streets seemed to be perfectly proportioned to catch and funnel light. Every intersection glowed, the avenues were alive with people going about their day, and beyond it all stood Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece, La Sagrada Família. I knew I wanted to photograph the city in a way that celebrated both its incredible planning and its unmistakable Catalan identity.

Barcelona is a complete no-fly zone for drones, and helicopters are tightly controlled, with only twin-engine aircraft permitted over the city. I'd spent weeks organising the flight with a local aviation company, who brought in a pilot specifically for the project. Between my very limited Catalan, a map spread across our laps and plenty of hand signals, we somehow managed to position the helicopter exactly where I needed it.

There was, however, one small surprise. My own aviation safety harness with its quick-release system had been held up in Australia, so the local solution was a length of rope that looked as though it had come straight from the neighbourhood hardware store. It was tied securely around my waist while the engineer sat behind me holding a knife, ready to cut me free if we ever needed to make an emergency landing. I decided not to dwell on that too much and instead concentrated on the view below.

Hovering above Barcelona was extraordinary. Miles of perfectly formed superblocks stretched towards the Mediterranean while the mountains framed the city to the west. The great diagonal boulevard sliced confidently across the orderly street grid, leading your eye towards La Sagrada Família rising above everything around it. It's difficult to comprehend the vision and planning that shaped a city like this until you see it from the air.

We flew several sorties over the course of the afternoon before making one final flight at sunset. By the time we landed back at the heliport it was dark, and I knew we'd captured something that revealed Barcelona in a way very few people ever have the opportunity to experience.