NEW YORK — For professional photographer Paule Saviano, a chance visit to a gallery in Tokyo set in motion a project spanning more than three years, taking him from the United States to Japan and then to Germany to capture images of World War II survivors.

The idea for his latest exhibit, "From Above: Dresden/Tokyo," shown in Germany and Japan through February, took root on a 2006 visit to Tokyo.

The Brooklyn native said that while touring Gallery ef in the Asakusa district, he was struck by a photo of a warehouse, built in 1868, set against a bombed Tokyo landscape.