Artistic Drone Shots Make World Pay Attention to Slums

A South African photographer’s drone shots of the world’s biggest slums – including South Africa’s Cape Town revealing luxurious homes on one side and tin-roof shelters on the other – are encouraging change by putting a spotlight on the inequalities of urban housing.

“It’s easy to ignore inequalities when you can’t really see them,” says the Cape Town-based photographer, Johnny Miller to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “People don’t pay attention to the things they see every day, so we need a visual culture that breaks that mechanism and gets people to notice, then take action.”

The series of drone images were displayed at the United Nations World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi, UAE this month, where artists, researchers and officials highlighted how art and technology are helping map – and ultimately put an end to – some of the most discriminatory divides between communities.