Die Erde Von Oben: Tag Für Tag

by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand can be forgiven for looking down on the world when his latest global survey, The Earth from the Air, 365 Days bears such bold witness to the variety of our lives and our planet. More compact than the original The Earth from the Air, but somehow no less heavy, Arthus-Bertrand's glossy portrait-diary of privileged panoramas formalises the concept of looking at a single piece of art each day by arranging yet another stunning array of bird's-eye glimpses of the lives we lead, and the multitude we don't and never will. His now-recognisable preferences are much in evidence, such as a person or animal to give scale or reference to a shot (the relationship between man and beast greatly informs his more traditional portrait work, such as Dogs and Cats, local markets, primitive enclosures and dwellings, seaweed, water as transport, life-sustainer, destroyer and habitat and an irresistible attraction to the flamingo's brilliant hue. This time, even greater emphasis is placed on verbal context for each image, with a predominantly social commentary which acts as a moral tax on the visual delights. Oceans are overfished, rainforests destroyed, but Nature can play as malevolent a role, through hurricanes, or volcanoes, which feature prominently both as beautiful perils or as forces of geological shape. Indeed, perhaps the most beautiful photographs reveal tortured, sinewy geological formation, showing how much our world is formed by the fragile strength of its own internal forces and resources as much as humankind deforms it. Images stick in the mind: mangrove clearings in New Caledonia in the shape of a heart; stilt houses on the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela--literally Little Venice; an abandoned town near Chernobyl. Some exist aesthetically, some metaphorically, while others provoke, but almost without exception, they draw in the browser to contemplative delight. Textured works of art, daily balm for the vertiginous, The Earth from the Air, 365 Days is manna from heaven, and sure beats the Pirelli calendar --David Vincent

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Reference, Nature, Travel

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Yann Arthus-Bertrand was born in a renowned jewellers' family founded by Claude Arthus-Bertrand and Michel-Ange Marion. His sister Catherine is one of his closest collaborators. He's been interested in nature and wildlife from an early age.
From the age of 17 he became involved in the movie industry. He gave up the movie industry in 1967 to run the Château de Saint Augustin wildlife park in Château sur Allier (centre of France). He then left the country with his wife Anne when he was 30 (1976) to live in Kenya in the Massai Mara national park. He lived amongst the Massai tribe for 3 years to study the behaviour of a lions’ family and took daily pictures of them during those years. He thus discovered a new passion for photography and the beauty of landscapes when observed from above in hot air balloons. He understood the power of a picture and how to communicate using this means.
He came back to France in 1981, published a photography book Lions in 1983, and became an international journalist, reporter and photographer specialising in documentaries on sports, wildlife and aerial photography for French magazines such as Paris Match and Geo. He photographed ten Paris-Dakar rallies. Every year he published a book on Rolland Garros, the tennis French open. He also took pictures every year at the Paris International Agricultural Show, and of Dian Fossey and gorillas in Rwanda.
In 1994 Arthus-Bertrand started a thorough study on the state of the Earth sponsored by UNESCO. Therefore he made a picture inventory of the world’s most beautiful landscapes taken from helicopters and balloons. The book from this project, Earth from Above (‘la Terre vue du ciel’) sold over 3 million copies and was translated into 24 languages.

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, this was one of those spontaneous purchases for me. The kind of purchase where I'd never normally consider buying such an abnormally heavy book costing me only £3 secondhand, which is full of 365 photograph's of the earth from above. Of course I say this, but the majority of my recent book purchases stems purely from my weakness of not being able to leave books alone. Ever.

This book was an unexpectedly wonderful find, and it has given me an insight into some beautiful places of the world, many of which, I hadn't heard about until now. The photography contained in here is breathtakingly beautiful, and I could gaze at quite a few of these photos rather happily for a substantial amount of my time.

The only aspect I think this book is lacking is there are no dates on any of the photos, which I probably would have been interested to know. It probably isn't too important to some, but for me, it would have been good to know.

This is definitely a book one can easily dip into when needed, or, you can just be like me, and devour it whole in about 24 hours.

[Anton Klink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I also have the original "The Earth From The Air", which has the same author and features many of the same photos, I will also be comparing these two books with each other.

The original "The Earth From The Air" was absolutely massive in size (one of the largest and heaviest books I've ever owned), but one which I was ultimately disappointed in. This smaller, more compact and updated version called "The Earth From The Air in 366 Days" is, strangely enough, a much more enjoyable book. This may sound surprising, since shrinking down any photo book usually diminishes the value, but quite the opposite is true here.

First of all, gone is the constant page-flipping and trying to match the text on one page with the photo on a completely different page and a world location on a third page altogether. That constant "connect the dots" of the original book was an absolute pain, but this book gets rid of it with a simple yet ingenious approach. What is it? Have text and world location on one page - and the photo right next to it on the facing page! Who would have thought? Sarcasm aside, this simple layout really does make perusing the book vastly more enjoyable and quickly overcomes any hesitations one may have about the smaller size of the pictures.

Secondly, the smaller size is actually a blessing and not a drawback. In the original book, although the photos were larger than life, the print and even original photo quality were mostly mediocre, but sometimes even unacceptably poor. In this newer and smaller book, the print quality has improved remarkably and since shrinking down any photo usually increases sharpness and decreases noise, the photos are actually better looking. Nevertheless, some photos taken in the 90s with inferior equipment still display severe optical problems. An example of this can be found on page "January 20" (there is no traditional numbering in this book). The left side of the picture is extremely soft and out of focus, especially compared to the right. This is not just corner softness, this almost half of the picture softness. In a large format book, the pictures invite you to study the details and such softness is extremely disappointing. Luckily in a smaller format the optical problems are less perceptible and since many of the newer photos have been shot with better equipment, the photos in this book look much better overall. There is still the issue of fairly small dynamic range on many of the photos (the shadows are sometimes pitch black) but overall this is a minor point.

Thirdly, although the book is still about sustainable development and environmental issues, the captions no longer go on a tangent of doom and gloom, which hardly has anything to do with the pictures. This time the captions actually provide some meaningful info about what is in the photo and just gently nudge us to think of various environmental impacts as well. A much better approach than the resentment-inducing "we will bash you on the head with a green club" of the original book.

For some reason I also enjoyed the calendar approach of the book. The recommended way to read is one page per day, in which case it will take exactly one year (plus one day) to finish the book. I don't have the patience for that though, so I strived to read at least one week at a time.

As for the photography itself, it goes without saying that it is absolutely superb but lots of other reviewers have already said that, so I won't dwell on it. My only wish is that the photos would also have been dated. I know that some of the photos are taken more than 15 years apart. The author may have thought that the actual years don't matter, but it would still have been nice to know.

In conclusion I will reiterate that with better captions, better print quality and a better layout, this is a much better book than the original "The Earth From The Air".

[Hoh Jian Hui · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There is no such thing as a natural catastrophe."

I read this book in 2023, 16 years after its publication. While information in the book is definitely outdated, the delivered messages and the lessons learnt after reading it, are still compatible in today's world. 16 years later, most of us still do not pay enough attention to the environmental issues... And I strongly believe, in another 16 years, we will still choose to live under the delusion that the world is doing fine.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is almost solely pictures but incredibly images from all over the world. They are some of the most beautiful I've ever encountered and I am proud to have this as a coffee table book.

[Linda Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful photography!