How does this make you feel?

August 20, 2010 9:32 PM

"Earth From Above" is the result of the aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand's five-year airborne odyssey across six continents.
posted by seagull.apollo (20 comments total)

That was really nice to scroll through, thanks. I would even say I enjoyed it far more than Koyaanisqatsi.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:23 PM on August 20, 2010

I've got the book. It's beautiful.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:29 PM on August 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Love the Copenhagen burbs.
posted by bwg at 12:16 AM on August 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

And not only there some stunning images here, you can look at them in a lovely non-Flash way, simply by scrolling. Big ups.
posted by vac2003 at 12:23 AM on August 21, 2010

That's so cool. Thanks. (And I am going to buy the book too, thanks, Devil Rancher.)

So many beautiful places on the planet... but the Rio de Janiero and Cape Town pics broke my heart.

What a wonderful, and awful, planet we live on.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 12:33 AM on August 21, 2010

Previously, the official site with 2308 'wallpapers of the world' to download is here, and theres a travelling exhibition: earthfromtheair.com
posted by Lanark at 1:14 AM on August 21, 2010

And here's his main site: Yann Arthus-Bertrand.org (it will open a new full-screen window).
posted by homunculus at 1:23 AM on August 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Pigeon houses!
posted by oulipian at 4:41 AM on August 21, 2010

I fell in love with the Southwest due to this fellow's photos of Monument Valley in National Geographic back in 1997(?).
Awesome stuff.
posted by notsnot at 4:44 AM on August 21, 2010

Pigeon houses!

more pigeon houses
posted by various at 7:09 AM on August 21, 2010

I was expecting George Gerster's Earth from Above which is great.

He did a set of wonderful posters for Swissair in the '70s, more of his work here.
posted by marvin at 7:36 AM on August 21, 2010

I want his job.
posted by kitarra at 8:03 AM on August 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I first saw Earth from Above in Europe, maybe Copenhagen? Big prints posted in a public square, maybe 2' x 3', posted on walls for people to walk around and enjoy. It was a terrific experience.

Every time I see a website with big images and a simple scrolling interface I want to give Metafilter's own kokogiak a kiss.
posted by Nelson at 8:16 AM on August 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

Endless ooohs and ahhhs. Thank you. Yay happy scrolling. Another smaller image collection of 50 of the same photographer's pics.

Each pic could inspire endless tangential surfing but the one that piqued my curiosity was the earthen pigeon houses of Mit Gahmr, Egypt. Crisp egyptian pigeon with coriander salt l Mit Ghamr was the town in which Dr. Ahmad El Najjar set up the first Islamic bank which pioneered the global Islamic Banking system.

Didn't know Egyptians call their country Misr, the origin of the oddly spelled word, Egypt (or that the word, Copt, came out of the badly pronounced word for Egypt).

But wait...what's the blue painted side of the ruins of Siwa pic all about? Huh, wonders if that's where the "salt of the earth" phrase came from. Hmm, hot in that part of the world today....*wanders off in a fractal link fest haze
posted by nickyskye at 10:13 AM on August 21, 2010

I saw the photos on display in Reykjavík in 2003 - really amazingly gorgeous shots. I had a few prints on my wall for the rest of the year, though I will say that the giant 3ft blowups were far more beautiful than my 4x6 postcards.
posted by sonika at 3:18 PM on August 21, 2010

Jesus - what happens in the other bits of the Copenhagen burbs?? That looks like a terrible.
posted by mjg123 at 4:00 PM on August 21, 2010

But... These photos totally are awesome. Is this the same guy as had pictures shown in the streets of Bath recently?
posted by mjg123 at 4:03 PM on August 21, 2010

Cool! I was also interested in learning more about the Copenhagen suburbs. I poked around the satellite imagery on Google maps and couldn't find anything resembling that photo. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places, or maybe this circular layout is isolated to a very small area? Does anyone know more about this?
posted by TurkishGolds at 7:31 AM on August 22, 2010

The circle suburbs are in Brøndby.
posted by LVdB at 3:15 PM on August 22, 2010

The surround, more rectangular suburbs are interesting too, with vegetable allotments and car parking away from the houses. Nice.
posted by LVdB at 3:21 PM on August 22, 2010