EarthArtbookAwesome Aerial Photos of Our Planet

5stars

By Bernhard Edmaier
Phaidon Press, $59.95, 224 pages

This large-format, beautiful book, Earth is likely to be the queen of your coffee table books. It was produced with no expense spared, and it’s simply stunning. It presents one-hundred-and-fifty aerial photos by geologist/photographer Bernhard Edmaier with text written by Angelika Jung-Hüttl. Virtually every single photo is awesome, and whether you like great photographs, you love the Earth or simply enjoy looking at striking art pieces, paging through the book will be a rewarding experience more than once. The authors cleverly divided the book into nine chapters offering photographs in nine colors according to the landscape (thus the subtitle, Colours of the Earth).

“Of all the heavenly bodies that are known so far in the black infinity of the universe, the earth is the most colourful.”

Most of the photos are nearly full page, 10×10 inches, some full page, 13½x11½ inches and a few are double spreads. Each chapter heading briefly explains the reason for such color in nature and each photograph’s caption gives you the location and a description of that picture, and scientific details in a few short sentences. The photos are from all over the world and must have taken many years to complete. This was a monumental undertaking, and the publisher was justified to present it at the highest possible standard. Good writing skill nicely complements the photographs.

Reviewed by George Erdosh

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