In October 2012, a drone strike in northeast Pakistan killed a 67-year-old woman picking okra outside her house. At a briefing held in 2013 in Washington DC, the woman’s 13-year-old grandson, Zubair Rehman, spoke to a group of five lawmakers. “I no longer love blue skies,” said Rehman, who was injured by a shrapnel in the attack. “In fact, I now prefer grey skies. The drones are not flown when the skies are grey.” With my camera attached to a small drone, I travelled across America to photograph the very sorts of gatherings that have become habitual targets for foreign air strikes—weddings, funerals and groups of people praying or exercising. I also flew his camera over settings in which drones are used to a less lethal effect, such as prisons, oil fields, and the US-Mexico border. The images captured from the drone’s perspective engage with the changing nature of our perception of surveillance, personal privacy and war.


This project has received overwhelming international support and acclaim. 
Partners for the project include: Harper’s Magazine, the Pulitzer Center, TIME Magazine, the Getty Images Grant, the Aaron Siskind Foundation, and Open Society Foundations.  It has received the following awards: ICP Infinity Award for Photojournalism, Pictures of the Year International Award of Excellence Issue Reporting, White House News Photographers Association, First Prize Multimedia, World Press Photo 2014 Second Prize Contemporary Issues, and TIME Magazine’s Top 10 Photos of 2014