Karl Hab’s hypnotic photographs taken out of a plane window

Karl Hab’s book Window Seat Please sees the photographer put ten years of flying around the world into print form. “It’s the first time I’ve published something about my own work,” says the French photographer. “Taking pictures from the window seat is something I always do when I travel, and it started when I got my first digital camera.”

Moody and mesmerising, Karl’s images feel both dramatic and soothing at the same time as the oval window lets us glimpse into the sunset-laden abyss. The pictures were mainly taken in Europe, Asia and the US and the project is a product of Karl’s boredom and his desire to capture that sense of adventure flying still evokes in many of us. “I really like the beauty of flying, what we can see and the whole association of being in a plane to go somewhere,” explains Karl.

Despite being taken on his digital camera, Karl felt the images suited being made into something more tangible. “I wanted to create something you can have with you, the digital world is something that is always moving, always in motion so I wanted to make an object that could stabilise that kind of world.”

The colours in this book makes each page hypnotic, with many images cloaked in darkness to let the twilight skies illuminate the picture. Taking photographs out of a plane window is of course nothing new, but it’s Karl’s commitment to his subject that’s elevated this project, as even the shots of the book itself are decorated with plane seat belts.