M,3.3

The Earth from the Air is the bestselling and most popular book of aerial photography ever published. As well as stunning photographs, each chapter has a map to help locate the images and a thought-provoking essay, viz: 'The State of the World in the Year 2000' + 'From the Paleolithic Age to Globalization' + 'Nature and Culture' + 'Traces, Ruins, Memory' + 'Spetacles and Landscapes' + Future of the City, Future of Life' + 'A Wounded Environment' + 'Population and the Future of Humanity' + 'Growing Enough to Feed the World' + 'Endangered Climates' + 'Toward a Sustainable Development'. This large, heavy tome is indeed a remarkable treasure. ( )

Questo libro appartiene alla biblioteca di mio figlio. Ho deciso di inserirlo nella mia per varie ragioni. Le sue misure sono davvero eccezionali: 37X29 cm, pesa quasi 5 kg, edizione rilegata. Non so se vi rendete conto di questa realtà in termini di dimensione e di allestimento tipografico. Lo si può consultare soltanto se poggiato su di un robusto sostegno. Quando lo si apre occupa quasi un metro di spazio. All'interno ci sono tavole illustrate che se dischiuse per essere lette danno una visione panoramica del nostro pianeta. Immagini aeree davvero favolose, a colori, corredate da testi descrittivi di luoghi che meritano di essere visti, letti e ricordati. Un caso evidente di bibliomania editoriale alla quale un cultura di libri stampati non può sfuggire. Non so se esiste una versione digitale. Non credo sia possibile farne una. Il risultato di cinque anni di lavoro in cinque continenti e sessanta paesi. Dalla Nuova Caledonia a Rio de Janeiro, le immagini sono del famoso fotografo aereo Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

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Yann Arthus-Bertrand has made a specialism out of aerial photography, and this book was produced to accompany a travelling exhibition of his work that set out to show the relationship of humankind with the environment. The exhibition went into towns and cities worldwide, and was mounted on outdoor exhibition panels rather than being a curated exhibition in a dedicated display space, so as to maximise the number of people who saw it.

Much of Arthus-Bertrand's work in this book verges on the abstract; only on closer viewing can some small human figures, or some artefacts, be picked out to give scale and to emphasise the extent to which human influence has penetrated and impacted the natural environment. Sometimes the results are good; sometimes they are bad. He shows us places untouched by human hands as well as those shaped by economic activity, from the most basic to the most complex.

If you liked Godfrey Reggio's films 'Koyanisqqatsi' and 'Powaqqatsi', you'll like this book. ( )

I bought this book after seeing the outdoor display outside the National History Museum in London where I was able to see a whole selection of the pieces on a huge scale. For the photographs alone this book is beautiful, but adding in the environmental information gives it even more to offer. Stunning photography. ( )