Earth from Above is a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

-supported ecological project conceived and led by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The project includes a photo essay-style collection of

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing air ...

produced by Arthus-Bertrand, in which the photographer captured vistas of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

from various

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

during a ten-year period. It gave birth to a book also entitled ''Earth from Above'', of which millions of copies were sold.

Background

Arthus-Bertrand founded the Altitude Agency in 1991, the world's first press agency and image bank specializing in aerial photography. The agency holds 350,000 "selected images" taken in more than a hundred countries. With a history of environmental activism, the photographer sought to exhibit his work at the Rio Conference in 1992, and eventually made a decision to document the condition of planet Earth.

UN sponsorship

In 1994, intent on conveying his perspective on environmental sustainability to other humans, Arthus-Bertrand successfully attained sponsorship from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the purposes of a long-term photographic project entitled, "The Earth From Above, Wild Animals, Horses, and 365 Days".

Book

Following the Rio summit, Arthus-Bertrand subsequently created a picture inventory of landscapes from across the world with each picture, and accompanying text, encouraging the reader to be responsible in their treatment of the earth. The book from the project, ''Earth from Above'' (French: ''La terre vue du ciel''), sold several million copies and was translated into over 21 languages.

Exhibitions

As part of a series of outdoor displays, the "Earth from Above" free exhibition was set up at the gates of

Jardin du Luxembourg The Jardin du Luxembourg (), known in English as the Luxembourg Garden, colloquially referred to as the Jardin du Sénat (Senate Garden), is located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. Creation of the garden began in 1612 when Marie de' ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, whereby the images appeared as big posters. At the conclusion of the first decade of the 21st century, the series of public exhibitions have been seen by over 200 million people.

Film

In 2007, Earth from Above was launched in a film format, broadcast on French national television as a 4-episode, 8-hour television series. The series, presented by Arthus-Bertrand, has been approved for four

seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and p ...

(15 episodes) and was created over a four-year timespan.

References

External links

Yann Arthus-Bertrand's personal website

Altitude Agency
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Earth From Above 2007 films Films directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand Non-narrative films Photographic collections and books United Nations mass media