Cities in the Night

Our cities after dark: Photographer spends one year thousands of metres above the world's greatest metropolises to capture stunning images

• Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Vincent Laforet has captured incredible aerial night images of major cities
• Through advances in photographic technology and software he has been able to capture cities lit up at night
• Mr Laforet captured the images over the course of a year from a helicopter, 2.2 kilometres up in the air 

By Alisha Buaya For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 06:28 GMT, 11 November 2015 | Updated: 08:27 GMT, 11 November 2015

Incredible photography has captured a new side of the world's most famous cities under the cover of darkness and from thousands of metres in the air.

Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Vincent Laforet captured the amazing night images of Sydney as part of his AIR Project in July.

Known for his post 9/11 coverage in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Laforet took on years and flew by helicopter to 2.2 kilometres in the air at night to capture her images of Sydney, New York, Los Angeles, Barcelona and London.

Renowned photographer Vincent Laforet captured amazing aerial images of Sydney at night from a

helicopter

Mr Laforet called Sydney an one of his favourite cities because of icons like the Opera House and Harbour Bridge 

'I came to Sydney because it's one of my favourite cities. It's got a very iconic series of images, the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, but it's also got an incredible and unique terrain,' Mr Laforet said in a report by The Australian.

The acclaimed director and photographer called it 'one of the most amazing projects' he had ever been part of because of the reaction to the images saying the images have not only appealed to photographers but to ordinary people.

'What I found was that I was one of the first people, if not the first to go up to 7500 feet (2.2km) or above and photograph these cities in a way that few people had seen before.'

 

Mr Laforet traveled around the world to major cities like San Francisco (pictured) capturing images and illuminating the roads, highways and buildings at night

Laforet captures the lights of New Jersey (left), Manhattan (centre) and Brooklyn (right) at night from a great height in a helicopter

The city that never sleeps: The bright lights of Times Square (centre) in the middle of Manhattan, New York

Advances in photographic technology and software have allowed Mr Laforet to show the cities roads and highways lit up at night. 

'This is the only time to capture something like this, with the mix between old, yellow-tinted lights and new, bright, blueish LED street lights' he said.  

He said that working from a high altitude: 'the city feels so much more within grasp, and you can see how much smaller the world is.'

Mr Laforet was hosted by Canon Australia to capture the images in July as part of his soon to be released book called 'Air'

The neon lights of the resort and casino capital Las Vegas contrasting against the pitch black of the night sky

 As the sun sets over Los Angeles, the city's lights being glow revealing the many roads and highways 

Yellow, blue and violet lights glow along the River Thames in this aerial view of a part of London, highlighting the city's icons like the London Bridge (top centre)