© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Above: Sandstone Pinnacles, Karnasai Valley, Chad, 1998.

George Steinmetz‘s new exhibition and book, Desert Air, is the first comprehensive photographic collection of the world’s “extreme deserts”, which receive less than four inches of precipitation a year.  This body of work, culled from 15 years of shooting, takes the viewer from China’s Gobi Desert to the Sahara in northern Africa to Death Valley in California.

Steinmetz photographs from a motorized paraglider which he describes as a “flying lawn chair”. Using the slowest and quietest powered aircraft in the world, he is not only able to take off and land without an airfield or government permission but is also likely to land in someone’s yard and be invited in for tea, becoming the talk of the town.

In his thirty year career, Steinmetz has been a regular contributor to National Geographic and GEO magazines and has won numerous awards including two first prizes in science and technology from World Press Photo.  Desert Air will be on view through March 3, 2013 at Anastasia Photo.

© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Salt Works, Teguidda-n-Tessoumt, Niger, 1997

© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Pacific Coast, Southern Peru, 1999

© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Salt Caravan, Lake Assale, Ethiopia, 2011.

© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Evaporation Ponds, Dead Sea, Israel, 2008.

© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Sun Bathers, Dead Sea, Israel, 2008.

© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Adjder Oasis, Algeria, 2009.

© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Beni Isguen, Algeria, 2009.

© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Adjder Oasis, Algeria, 2009.

© George Steinmetz. Courtesy Anastasia Photo. Barchan Dunes, Paracas National Park, Peru, 1999.