Bird’s-eye views

Georg Gerster (born 1928) is a Swiss photographer who specialises in shooting from above. For more than 40 years he has been taking aerial photographs, and has flown over 111 countries. Concentrating on archaeological and heritage sites, Gerster has made what might accurately be called an ‘overview’ that has greatly enhanced our archaeological understanding. His pictures have been reproduced in National Geographic and used on Swissair posters and calendars. He is what you might call a popular photographer, and a very fine one. The current exhibition of his work at the British Museum presents his photographs in a very low-key way: blown-up and unframed, they resemble illustrations from a magazine or subsidiary information panels rather than exhibits. (The triumph of content over style.) As if in recognition of this, the display has been plumped out by a selection of ‘real’ exhibits, ancient or modern artefacts from the sites depicted. It’s as if these, not the photographs, have the Museum’s actual seal of approval.