Aerial photographs by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
June 8, 2011 4:44 AM   Subscribe

The Earth from Above, a collection of aerial photographs by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. More can found on his website (warning, has sound). (Previously)
posted by Brandon Blatcher (7 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
previously, previously, previously
posted by memebake at 5:19 AM on June 8, 2011


previously
posted by memebake at 5:23 AM on June 8, 2011


Excellent.

but holy hell, pretty much all the links from the previouslies are dead, the interwebs can't be counted on for anything given enough time...
posted by palbo at 8:36 AM on June 8, 2011


These are amazing.
posted by shelleycat at 10:50 AM on June 8, 2011


Yes, every one of these implies a story. Here's one about Hashima Island (which I'm pretty sure I've read about on Metafilter PREVIOUSLY).

The ugliest photo is of my home town, Denver. Well, more precisely of its suburbs, most of which are not in the city itself. (Denver has 500,000 people; the metro area has two million.) My story about suburbs like this happens about every five years, and it's like a waking nightmare.

I am driving outside of my comfort zone (the City). I am in the suburbs. I am lost. Everyone is presumably white. But I wouldn't know, because no human beings are visible, although a white person, alone, drives a car by once in while. I might as well be on Hashima Island.
posted by kozad at 11:47 AM on June 8, 2011


The coffee table book is awesome, BTW. I once found a bunch on sale at a Borders (RIP, I guess) for $10, and had a vague notion of buying all of them and giving them to everyone in my life.

Years later, I had to settle for the smaller one as a gift for my now-wife.
posted by SpiffyRob at 12:40 PM on June 8, 2011


- Interesting how something as inherently grotesque as a coal mine can make such an oddly beautiful and colorful image.
- Nifty optical illusion as one scrolls past the Verdun cemetery picture.
- I can't decide if the circular suburbs of Copenhagen are an innovative, or a restrictive and soul-deadening, approach.
- In Switzerland, even the sailboats are all the same and are piloted like clockwork.
- Denver and Dubai both manage to make flowing curved lines look homely and forced; Varanasi and Beijing's Changping district didn't even go so far as to bother with curves and decided to just be ugly while sticking to straight lines.
- Capetown is just fuckin' *appalling*, man.
- Neuschwanstein Castle appears to be made of fairy cake and icing and the dreams of virgin princesses. Which is in odd contrast to typically (at least in more recent times) utilitarian German architecture.
- Hashima Island looks utterly implacable and repugnant. Which is in odd contrast to (at least traditionally) generally organic/ornamental Japanese architecture.
- If I ever have to visit L.A., I'll hire a taxi rather than try to navigate that nightmare!
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:57 PM on June 8, 2011


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