New ways of seeing? A reflexive case study on the possibilities of teaching verticality and aerial vision through participatory balloon photography.

This article explores the possibilities for teaching vertical vision through co-created, participatory and DIY aerial balloon photography to a mix of undergraduate and postgraduate photography students in a UK institution. Though many scholars in geography, architecture, urban studies and latterly, sociology have observed a ‘vertical’ and ‘atmospheric turn’ in their critical and pedagogic practices, the vertical, sensory, and affective qualities of aerial vision have been mostly absent from photographic pedagogy. A discipline that is typically taught with emphasis on a horizontal rather than vertical axis, this article examines how situated practical and transformative learning approaches can help activate new ways of seeing societies, places, communities, and environments through co-produced and participatory models of DIY aerial balloon photography. Reflecting on the value and impact of the one-day workshop with a multi-year group of Higher Education (HE) photography students, the article makes a case to consider the incorporation of co-created participatory DIY aerial photography within photographic pedagogy. In doing so, I argue that the skills acquired through creative, practical, and playful vertical vision has the capacity to open the spatial and sensorial field of enquiry for interdisciplinary photographic pedagogy.