How To Fly Using Only A Camera And A Ladder

Jan Von Holleben turns gravity on its ear with his series of photos titled "Dreams of Flying"

By photographing from above and using the ground as a two-dimensional backdrop, Von Holleben creates a whimsical world where children fly through the air and perform unearthly feats. "Ladders are my second home!" he writes in an email, "Things just look so different from up there!"

This technique has come into vogue recently in commercials and music videos, from Oren Lavie's Her Morning Elegance to commercials for Amazon Kindle. But the most impressive application of what I'm going to call "overhead stop-motion animation" — because there doesn't seem to be an official term — is this music video for Coldplay's Strawberry Swing:

What in the what? Think about how much time and meticulous planning this must have taken and your brain will melt.

Want to give the still version a try? There's a Flickr pool of photos inspired by the Dreams of Flying series. You can add it to our Flickr pool, too.