Yann Arthus-Bertrand
The late twentieth century saw aerial photography emerge as a distinct creative and documentary practice, carrying landscape imagery far beyond what ground-level work could offer. Yann Arthus-Bertrand, born in Paris on 13 March 1946, built his career at exactly that intersection, working as a photographer, film director, journalist, screenwriter, painter, and balloonist — a range of roles that fed into a sustained engagement with environmentalism.
Arthus-Bertrand's aerial photography became the throughline connecting his varied output. His book Earth from Above, published in 1999, drew on that practice to present the planet's surface as seen from above. He then moved into film, directing Home in 2009 and Human in 2015 — works that extended his environmental concerns into the moving image. Operating in both French and English, he brought that material to audiences across national contexts, and his alignment with the environmentalism movement shaped the thematic direction of his photography and filmmaking alike.
The recognition he received across his career reflects how his work was received by cultural, scientific, and governmental bodies. France awarded him at multiple levels of the Legion of Honour, progressing through Knight, Officer, and Commander, and he also received the Commander of the National Order of Merit, the Officer of the National Order of Merit, the Officer of the Order of Agricultural Merit, and the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. Beyond France, he was awarded the Cherry Kearton Medal and Award, the Grande Médaille d'Or des Explorations, and the United Nations Champions of the Earth award — the last of these a direct acknowledgement of his work as an environmentalist.
Quotes by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
The whole world is determined by trade – which is really the blood of the world. The driving force is everyone’s desire to have a better life. How? By consuming. For countries, the ‘Holy Grail’ is economic growth.
Our children think our world will end. It’s a tragic thing. Adults don’t think that. They don’t see that we are eating the planet. But we are. If you take all the biomass of vertebrates on the planet, 98% are men and their domestic animals. All the wild animals in the world make up only 2%.
I always take hundreds and hundreds of pictures. I used to work for ‘National Geographic,’ and they gave us a lot of film.
The West has become the world model; developing countries are dreaming of living like us, which is impossible. They should reject our model, because it is not sustainable. Developing countries should even give us the example, but unfortunately that’s not what happens.
An image of the earth, its landscapes, directly affects people. The beauty of the earth creates enormous emotion, and through that emotion, you can transmit knowledge and raise consciousness.
For me, an aerial picture is no different than a close-up portrait. It’s a question of framing and angle. Helicopters are great for that. But I’ve also used planes. Of course, I always have a harness.
I’m not an expert when it comes to technology, but what changed things for me was autofocus. I used to have to throw away half my pictures because it was so difficult to get the focus right.
One fifth of human kind depend on fish to live. Today now 70 percent of the fish stock are over-exploited. According to FAO if we don’t change our system of fishing the main sea resources will be gone in 2050. We don’t want to believe what we know.
After Hurricane Katrina, over New Orleans, my helicopter crashed and the pilot and I were only saved because we fell on the roof of a flooded house that absorbed the shock. When the helicopter was spiraling downward out of control, I didn’t expect to survive at all.
I wanted to be a scientist. I did a thesis on lions. But I realised photography can show things writing can’t. Lions were my professor of photography.