Photo Gallery Looking Down on Germany
German photographer Gerhard Launer has been photographing Germany from above for decades. This image shows the unexpected beauty of a disused uranium mine near the town of Gera.
Even familiar places, such as this public swimming pool in Munich, get a new twist when seen from above.
Launer spends hours each day in his Cessna flying over all parts of Germany. Here, the Hoheweg lighthouse on the North Sea coast.
Launer says he used to work with a pilot, but he never quite got the angle he wanted for his photos. Now he flies and takes photos simultaneously. Here, a coastal area near Hamburg known as Kasier Wilhelmskoog.
From above, the photographer is able to find beauty where one would least expect it, like at this trainyard in Maschen, one of the biggest in the world.
Seals sunning themselves on the beach on the island of Borkum in the North Sea, just off the coast of Germany.
An image of Norderoog in Germany's famed Wattenmeer tidal flats. "I have the opportunity to see things from a perspective that most people never have," Launer said in a 2006 television documentary about his work.
Even well known sights, like Berlin's famous television tower, look a bit different when photographed by Launer.
Open pit coal mining has left several scars in Germany, including here in Klettwitz. But even those scars can offer an interesting image.
The Weiher power plant in Baden Württemberg. "I see some things differently from the way I imagined they'd be from the ground," says Launer.
Gerhard Launer has published several books and calendars of his work. His most recent is called "Deutschland: Entdeckung von Oben" (Germany: Discovery from Above) and can be ordered on Amazon.
