The first full-length book of drone photography of the Crescent City, Above New Orleans, offers readers perspectives never before captured by a camera. Overhead scenes cover the entire metropolis, from the French Quarter to Uptown, from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain, from Westwego to New Orleans East, and from Gentilly to Gretna. A detailed description accompanies each image, providing insight into the history, geography, and architecture of this dazzling municipality.

 

As this volume demonstrates, the vantage points afforded by the drone-mounted camera reveal fascinating views otherwise unobtainable in the often compact environment of New Orleans. "To me, a roofscape is the tout ensemble of urban elements," writes Richard Campanella in the book's preface, "particularly in dense neighborhoods, visible from a perch that is high enough to be synoptical, yet low enough to be intimate. Roofscapes are the intermediary between the more familiar concepts of streetscapes and landscapes; they are the oblique, three-dimensional renderings of cityscapes."

 

Capturing these views of New Orleans required the specialized equipment and expertise of retired Italian engineer Marco Rasi, who has mastered the new technology of drone photography in his adopted hometown. His adept piloting and keen eye made for, in Rasi's words, "the perfect platform to capture those rooftop perspectives I had always savored, as no aircraft or helicopter could ever do."

 

Above New Orleans: Roofscapes of the Crescent City beautifully documents the aesthetic wonder of the city's singular urban landscape.

Richard Campanella is a geographer and associate dean for research at the Tulane School of Architecture. The author of numerous books, including Cityscapes of New Orleans, he was named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French government in 2016. In 2019 he received the Louisiana Writer Award from the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana.

 

Marco Rasi earned a PhD in civil engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He is a certified commercial drone pilot and expert in drone-mounted cameras.

ISBN: 9780807176061

Hardcover

264 pages

13.6 x 11.4

Illustrated, Index, Maps

LSU Press, 2021