Africa on the Fly

Dangling from a paraglider with a propeller on his back, photographer George Steinmetz gets a new perspective on Africa

  • By Abigail Tucker
  • Smithsonian magazine, January 2009, Subscribe
View More Photos »
a salt-making site at the village of Teguidda-n-Tessoumt in arid northern Niger
Seen from the aircraft that Steinmetz calls his "flying lawn chair," a salt-making site at the village of Teguidda-n-Tessoumt in arid northern Niger appears to be a vast work of abstract art. The clay-lined pools hold briny water that slowly evaporates, yielding salt solids that workers truck to southern Niger and Nigeria, where the minerals are given to livestock. The bluish pools bear a salty crust that reflects the sky. (George Steinmetz)

Photo Gallery (1/5)

Cape fur seals on Namibias Skeleton Coast

Explore more photos from the story

Related Links

Related Books

African Air

by George Steinmetz
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2008

More from Smithsonian.com


The children playing at the elementary school across the street from George Steinmetz's house didn't miss a beat when, grunting in his driveway, he strapped on his flying machine. His outfit was pure New Jersey dad—loafers, blue jeans and a fleece vest—but his hair was wild and the shadows beneath his eyes were as dark as the volcanic craters he likes to photograph from the sky. Steinmetz had been up until 3 that morning dangling from the rafters of his garage to test his new motorized paragliding harness. "To be honest, it's a big pain," he said as his assistant, Jessica Licciardello, yanked at the engine's cord, checking it before we headed out for a test flight. "But, you see, I'm the only one who takes pictures like this."

The motor caught, and suddenly the clipped grass of Steinmetz's front yard rippled like the African savanna. Even now, the kids didn't look over: perhaps they mistook the roar for a leaf blower or lawn mower or some other source of suburban hubbub. It was just as well. Steinmetz's 6-year-old twin sons, students at the school, have never watched their father paraglide, and their mother would like to keep it that way. They have, however, seen the panoramic photographs their dad takes while hanging from a red parachute hundreds and sometimes thousands of feet off the ground—shots of sandstone pillars in Chad's Karnasai Valley, flamingos gliding over the Namibian coast and other seldom-seen-from-above wonders that fill African Air, Steinmetz's new book.

"Most aerial photographers work from helicopters or little planes, but he goes up on this crazy little thing," says Ruth Eichhorn, director of photography for the German edition of GEO, one of many magazines, including Smithsonian, that has published Steinmetz's work. "He can go very low, so he can photograph people in the landscape, and he will go to places that nobody else will go. It's very, very dangerous work, but I think it's worth it."

Steinmetz's aircraft—he calls it "a flying lawn chair"—consists of a nylon paraglider, a harness and a backpack-mounted motor with a large propeller that looks like an industrial fan. "I am the fuselage," he explains. To lift off, he spreads the glider on the ground, cranks up the motor and runs a few steps when the right gust of wind comes along. Then, traveling 30 miles per hour, he can dip into craters and get close enough to thousands of sunbathing fur seals to smell their fishy breath.

It might be easy to dismiss him as a real-life Icarus, the winged rogue of Greek myth who soared too near the sun. But Steinmetz flies to get closer to the earth; his Africa pictures convey a kind of intimacy that comes only with a certain distance. His perspective is lofty but not detached, and it's informed by his love of geophysics, which he studied as an undergraduate at Stanford University. His aerial pictures trace human patterns, too, in the slums radiating from Cape Town, South Africa, for example, or the crowds at a Soweto cemetery assembled for Saturday morning funerals.

"Africa has always been instinctive for me," he said as we drove, with the paraglider in pieces in the back seat of his Suburban, to a tiny airport nearby. As a young man on hiatus from college in the late 1970s, Steinmetz hitchhiked around Africa for a year, generally horrifying his mother back home in Beverly Hills. In Sudan, he once rode—and slept—for three days on the curved roof of a moving train. Somewhere along the way, he learned to take pictures with a borrowed camera. Even then, he recalled, he fantasized about photographing the continent from above. "I wanted to get into that landscape," he said. "I wanted to see Africa in 3-D."

He worked as a photographer's assistant in California before he began publishing his own work. Then, in 1997, when he was planning to take aerial photographs of the Central Sahara, his bush pilot backed out. Steinmetz decided to learn to fly himself, taking lessons in motorized paragliding, which does not require a pilot's license, in an Arizona desert. A few months later, he was sailing above salt caravans in Niger. In the next decade he flew over some of the world's most forbidding places, a flamboyant red blip against the clouds.

He uses a digital camera, usually with a wide-angle zoom lens, and has to juggle the camera and the paraglider's Kevlar steering lines. He's had several nasty spills, including a recent crash into a stand of trees in northwest China; he awoke on the ground to discover that a tree branch had pierced his cheek. His contraption—at less than 100 pounds, the lightest kind of motorized aircraft in the world—can be carried just about anywhere: on a camel's back, in the belly of a canoe or in the back seat of an SUV.

At the suburban airfield, Steinmetz pieced together the engine's flimsy-looking metal frame and donned a big white helmet, kneepads and his "wheels"—sturdy boots. This would be a test run for an assignment in Libya. His radio was on the fritz, but never mind: while airborne he would communicate with us on the ground through a series of kicks. Licciardello—who once upon a time thought she was taking an office job toning photographs—looked nervous. "OK, George," she said.

He spread the paraglider on the ground and waited for the wind.

Staff writer Abigail Tucker last wrote about the 16th-century painter John White.


The children playing at the elementary school across the street from George Steinmetz's house didn't miss a beat when, grunting in his driveway, he strapped on his flying machine. His outfit was pure New Jersey dad—loafers, blue jeans and a fleece vest—but his hair was wild and the shadows beneath his eyes were as dark as the volcanic craters he likes to photograph from the sky. Steinmetz had been up until 3 that morning dangling from the rafters of his garage to test his new motorized paragliding harness. "To be honest, it's a big pain," he said as his assistant, Jessica Licciardello, yanked at the engine's cord, checking it before we headed out for a test flight. "But, you see, I'm the only one who takes pictures like this."

The motor caught, and suddenly the clipped grass of Steinmetz's front yard rippled like the African savanna. Even now, the kids didn't look over: perhaps they mistook the roar for a leaf blower or lawn mower or some other source of suburban hubbub. It was just as well. Steinmetz's 6-year-old twin sons, students at the school, have never watched their father paraglide, and their mother would like to keep it that way. They have, however, seen the panoramic photographs their dad takes while hanging from a red parachute hundreds and sometimes thousands of feet off the ground—shots of sandstone pillars in Chad's Karnasai Valley, flamingos gliding over the Namibian coast and other seldom-seen-from-above wonders that fill African Air, Steinmetz's new book.

"Most aerial photographers work from helicopters or little planes, but he goes up on this crazy little thing," says Ruth Eichhorn, director of photography for the German edition of GEO, one of many magazines, including Smithsonian, that has published Steinmetz's work. "He can go very low, so he can photograph people in the landscape, and he will go to places that nobody else will go. It's very, very dangerous work, but I think it's worth it."

Steinmetz's aircraft—he calls it "a flying lawn chair"—consists of a nylon paraglider, a harness and a backpack-mounted motor with a large propeller that looks like an industrial fan. "I am the fuselage," he explains. To lift off, he spreads the glider on the ground, cranks up the motor and runs a few steps when the right gust of wind comes along. Then, traveling 30 miles per hour, he can dip into craters and get close enough to thousands of sunbathing fur seals to smell their fishy breath.

It might be easy to dismiss him as a real-life Icarus, the winged rogue of Greek myth who soared too near the sun. But Steinmetz flies to get closer to the earth; his Africa pictures convey a kind of intimacy that comes only with a certain distance. His perspective is lofty but not detached, and it's informed by his love of geophysics, which he studied as an undergraduate at Stanford University. His aerial pictures trace human patterns, too, in the slums radiating from Cape Town, South Africa, for example, or the crowds at a Soweto cemetery assembled for Saturday morning funerals.

"Africa has always been instinctive for me," he said as we drove, with the paraglider in pieces in the back seat of his Suburban, to a tiny airport nearby. As a young man on hiatus from college in the late 1970s, Steinmetz hitchhiked around Africa for a year, generally horrifying his mother back home in Beverly Hills. In Sudan, he once rode—and slept—for three days on the curved roof of a moving train. Somewhere along the way, he learned to take pictures with a borrowed camera. Even then, he recalled, he fantasized about photographing the continent from above. "I wanted to get into that landscape," he said. "I wanted to see Africa in 3-D."

He worked as a photographer's assistant in California before he began publishing his own work. Then, in 1997, when he was planning to take aerial photographs of the Central Sahara, his bush pilot backed out. Steinmetz decided to learn to fly himself, taking lessons in motorized paragliding, which does not require a pilot's license, in an Arizona desert. A few months later, he was sailing above salt caravans in Niger. In the next decade he flew over some of the world's most forbidding places, a flamboyant red blip against the clouds.

He uses a digital camera, usually with a wide-angle zoom lens, and has to juggle the camera and the paraglider's Kevlar steering lines. He's had several nasty spills, including a recent crash into a stand of trees in northwest China; he awoke on the ground to discover that a tree branch had pierced his cheek. His contraption—at less than 100 pounds, the lightest kind of motorized aircraft in the world—can be carried just about anywhere: on a camel's back, in the belly of a canoe or in the back seat of an SUV.

At the suburban airfield, Steinmetz pieced together the engine's flimsy-looking metal frame and donned a big white helmet, kneepads and his "wheels"—sturdy boots. This would be a test run for an assignment in Libya. His radio was on the fritz, but never mind: while airborne he would communicate with us on the ground through a series of kicks. Licciardello—who once upon a time thought she was taking an office job toning photographs—looked nervous. "OK, George," she said.

He spread the paraglider on the ground and waited for the wind.

Staff writer Abigail Tucker last wrote about the 16th-century painter John White.

    Subscribe now for more of Smithsonian's coverage on history, science and nature.



 

Add New Comment


Name: (required)

Email: (required)

Comment:

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until Smithsonian.com has approved them. Smithsonian reserves the right not to post any comments that are unlawful, threatening, offensive, defamatory, invasive of a person's privacy, inappropriate, confidential or proprietary, political messages, product endorsements, or other content that might otherwise violate any laws or policies.

Comments (6)

Reading an older copy (January 2009) of the Smithsonian Magazine, I came upon a disturbing picture on pages 52 & 53. The picture show tens of thousands of Cape Fur Seals in Namibia being stampeded as a result of an overflight by a thoughtless George Steinmetz using a propeller powered paraglider at an elevation as low as fifty feet.

Here in Alaska, such an activity would be illegal. Fur seals on the Pribilof Islands and walruses along several coastal areas would be subject to great stress, including mortality of pups being stomped to death.

You folks who are responsible for Smithsonian Magazine content should not reward such irresponsible behavior by publishing pictures from such thoughtless persons who are merely searching for photo opportunities. Shame on you.

Ron Berg
Juneau, Alaska

Posted by Ron Berg on October 2,2009 | 12:26 PM

Amazing. It must be great flying high above everyone else, capturing there lives and the places they live in the push of a button.

Posted by Jacob on July 8,2009 | 03:04 PM

Wonderful photographs!

Posted by Jack Willoughby on February 1,2009 | 08:18 PM

Wonderful pictures! The picture of the salt-making site is amazing. I'm wondering where the briny water comes from and why there are so many different colors. Natural salts like this can be a valuable source of essential minerals for animals and humans alike. This looks like a story all by itself. The picture in the magazine is much better quality. There are several people tending the salt flats.

Posted by Kris Johnson on January 22,2009 | 12:09 AM

I'm so glad I'm alive to read about people like you. Do keep it up!! God will bless you one day!!

Posted by katherine on January 9,2009 | 07:55 PM

How exquisite...what a great idea! I fly gliders and ultralight motorgliders in Southern Africa and am intrigued by the incredible sights and views. Motorgliders are unobtrusive - watch birds on a vlei; or even monkeys in the top of a tree. A motorized parasail....now that's an even more intimate way to visit...and one can drive to remote places and take off...and land on smaller spaces... I cannot wait to give it a try myself...but probably I'll leave photography to a pro like Steinmetz...What wonderful shots. Thanks for enriching our lives.

Posted by Hans von Michaelis on January 3,2009 | 08:04 PM

The little orange streak with a black dot at the top in the center of the picture - that looks like a human being, tending the salt ponds. So it looks like the bigger salt ponds in this photo aren't more than eight or ten feet across.

Posted by Michaele Maurer on December 25,2008 | 04:53 AM

Very interesting. On first view this looks like a concrete stepping stone with pretty colored stone-smoothed rocks embedded in its texture. By putting a border on it would it make a difference? I believe this photo is one of those that infuriates the eye because though detailed there is no known landmark on which to affix an"anchor" of knowledge. Sincerely, Paul Viera Portland, Tennessee

Posted by Paul Viera on December 20,2008 | 12:21 PM



Advertisement


Advertisement

Follow Us





First Name
Last Name
Address 1
Address 2
City
State   Zip
Email


Travel with Smithsonian




Smithsonian Store