This is a larger version of the original The Earth from the Air which had 170 pictures. This has 365 and is arranged as a day book. It was originally published in French. The images are of natural landscape, built environment, people and animals, although the selection of subjects is at times a little unusual: the UK is represented by two chalk horses, the Cerne Abbas Giant and a crop circle! All the images are of spectacular colour and design. Some are near to photojournalism, others verge in to abstract and pattern. Few photographers can handle this range of styles, and this is one of the reasons that I am impressed with this book. It is difficult to pick out specific images to comment on (less academic journals than this would probably reproduce an image or two) but some do come to mind. The picture of massed flamingos, a common image, is made special by the shadow of the light aircraft used for the photography over the scene. This is a textbook error in photography that when boldly done can, and here does, work. There are many near abstract images, such as the cracked mud in the Camargue. There is wonderful lighting of some of the buildings, like the Sophia Basilica in Istanbul. The last image is of a man in a small boat on the Nile laden with reeds; I feel he wishes us all farewell for the journey about the world.
The book has an environment agenda and the images are preceded by some statistics about population, wealth, land use and the like. Each picture is accompanied by a short text commenting on the image, and drawing attention to specific problems. These are helpful and relevant.
Air photography books are popular, I already have several to which this makes a worthy addition. I was looking through one on the tube a few years ago and I was aware that the people either side of me were also looking; it almost felt like sharing books at school and I was close to asking if they were ready for me to turn the page. This book is a bit heavy for reading on trains but it is a book for dipping into. I am not methodical enough to do a picture a day and I do not expect many will. It is a lovely book to give as a present and an ideal public library book.
