Adas Vasiliauskas is a commercial photographer from Lithuania. When his country went into quarantine, he saw all his advertising jobs postponed or cancelled. As he was sitting trying to solve his unemployment puzzle and come up with solutions, he came up with the idea of shooting people all over the city with a drone, as it does not involve any human contact.

Interview Conducted by Lamia Baladi

Could you share your vision and idea behind the drone portraits series : how did you come up with it and what is your relationship to the subjects?

As I was trying to come up projects to work on, I knew that I needed to photograph something interesting, but social distancing was tricky for portraits. I first thought of offering to shoot people with a telephoto lens, but I then remembered I use drone in my wedding photography, which involves zero human contact. I went on facebook to share my idea, and everything started from there. I shot a few of my friends, more people started to write me and now I have full waiting list of future models near their windows and balconies. People liked the idea, because it's a new way to capture their quarantined life. Except some angry neighbours who thought I wanted to shoot them, which was totally not the case. Many of my models thanked me for cheering up their days, and in particular their children who were often feeling bored.

Happy Dinosaur Family © Adas Vasiliauskas

These photographs are really uplifting, it is nice to see people having fun, dressing up and setting scenes. Could you tell us more about the process behind it?

After the project gained its popularity I received dozens of requests every day. We talk about the idea, what objects they have at home which can be used, since you can't go out borrowing nice thing from your neighbours during these times. We agree on the exact date and time. I arrive at their house, park my car, fly my drone and call them. During the whole flight photo session time I give my thoughts how they should stand or look on the phone. Of course there's no face to face interaction as it's the main idea. Ok, not zero, sometimes we wave and smile through the balcony! Later on in the evening, after the whole day of shooting, I come home and post-process pictures.

How does it differ to shoot people without physical contact and interaction?

It took some time to adapt. Basically the main difficulty is that you have to control the drone and then you have to control the camera angle. When shooting regularly you have automatic control. But with the drone it's different.

Hairdressers at home © Adas Vasiliauskas

Everything is going to be OK © Adas Vasiliauskas

“Many of my models thanked me for cheering up their days, and in particular their children who were often feeling bored. ”

What is the impact of this project?

People, which I photograph, write me endless messages of gratitude. They say it was an awesome update to their daily quarantine-stay-at-home routine and it was fun to develop the idea and prepare. Specially people with children as they say drone for the little ones is something from outer space! They talk about it for three days after. And I receive many messages from people all around the world who are just thanking me for bringing positivity into these dark times. I hope my project helps everyone not to lose it.