In the series “Gotham 7.5K,” photographer and filmmaker Vincent Laforet captured absolutely stunning high-altitude photos of New York City at night by way of a nighttime helicopter ride.
[The wind was blowing pretty hard that night, so Laforet and his camera had to be strapped in with a body harness in order to lean out of the side of the chopper to get the perspective he needed to make his vision come true.]Vincent Laforet was born in Switzerland, grew up in France and New York City and went to college in Chicago at The Medill School of Journalism. From a very young age he has been on the move, experiencing and adjusting to new ways of life which have allowed him to collaborate across the arts, media, technology and communication fields while feeding his own curiosity.
“I’ve climbed to the top of the Empire State Building. I’ve directed a commercial for Nike with Kobe Bryant. I’ve flown for hundreds of hours in helicopters around the world photographing and filming the most beautiful places and landscapes. Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neill and Dennis Rodman have all fallen on me as I photographed them from the sidelines of games, and I’ve shot 4 NBA Finals, 5 Super Bowls, 8 World Series and 4 amazing Olympic Games. In the weeks following 9/11, I went to Pakistan as a staff photographer for The New York Times, and I’ve shot thousands of news assignments from terrorist attacks to blackouts, portraits of heads of state and every imaginable disaster the world could offer up. I spent a month on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the gulf, photographing my Top Gun dreams during the start of the second Gulf War. I’ve directed 4 short films and numerous commercials to date and worked with thousands of people in the commercial and film industries all of whom have taught me so much“, Vincent Laforet says.
