Aerial photography was pioneered by French photographer and balloonist Nadar (real name Gaspard Felix Tounachon, 1820 - 1910) in the 1850s when he took photos of Paris from a hot air balloon.

In world war 1 the military began using aerial photography and developed the application.

Aerial photography has provided scientific data about the Earth, Moon and our universe since the 1960s

The attached picture depicting Nadar is a lithograph by Honore, Le Boulavard, 1862.