The Pigeons That Took Aerial Photographs

Transcript

In the early nineteen hundreds, German pharmacist Julius Neubronner fitted homing pigeons with miniature cameras.

A harness held the camera against the bird’s chest, with its lenses angled toward the ground.

An air-powered delay triggered the shutter automatically while the pigeon flew.

Back home, the film was developed to reveal the view from above.

These surviving pictures show rooftops and streets, photographed without anyone looking through a viewfinder.

In one, the pigeon’s own wings appear at the edges.

He even sold the photographs as postcards.

A real bird’s-eye view. Taken by the bird.

Attribution

Historical photographs and technical drawing: Julius Neubronner and Agence Rol / Bibliothèque nationale de France, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain); opening photograph: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R01996, photographer unknown (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped and animated); original simplified 3D reconstruction and editing by Ask Pandi, with ElevenLabs narration. Adapted opening photograph retains CC BY-SA 3.0 DE: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]}