Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Background

Yann Arthus-Bertrand was born on March 13, 1946, in Paris, France to a renowned jewelers' family founded in 1803 by Claude Arthus-Bertrand and Michel-Ange Marion. He has five siblings: Corinne, Dominique, Béatrice, Catherine, and Pascal Arthus-Bertrand.

Education

Arthus-Bertrand has no higher education and describes himself as a "violent child," attending 15 different schools as a boy.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand turned to photography in the 1980s while he was in Kenya helping his wife as she made a study of the behavior of lions. "I wanted to be a scientist. I did a thesis on lions. But I realized photography can show things writing can't. Lions were my professor of photography," he said once.

Career

In 1963, 17-year-old Yann Arthus-Bertrand left home with dreams of being a film star and became an assistant producer then cinema actor. "I had no money. I was in the street. I was cleaning the cinema studio. Then I became the third assistant. But in two years I was getting roles in films, living in St Tropez. I was a bad actor though," said Arthus-Bertrand in one of the interviews.

From 1967 till 1975, Yann Arthus-Bertrand worked in the Saint-Augustin Chateau animal park, in Château-sur-Allier, France. In that time he rediscovered nature and was very involved with animals, breeding lions, tigers.

To earn his living and finance his study of the Lions, Yann became a Montgolfier pilot. It was then that he discovered the Earth seen from the sky and taught himself aerial photography.

In 1976, at the age of 30, Yann went with his wife Anne to live in Kenya in the Masaï Mara National Park so as to study the behavior of a family of lions that he photographed each day for three years.

In 1981, his first photographic book "Lions" was published. Yann Arthus-Bertrand began his career as a journalist, reporter, and international photographer. He photographed ten Paris-Dakar rallies, and took pictures every year at the Paris International Agricultural Show, and of the ethologist Dian Fossey with gorillas in Rwanda.

In the 1990s, in tandem with aerial photography, he engaged in more personal work, examining, in particular, the relationship between man and animal which led to the publication of the books "Horses" and "Bestiaux."

In 1992, Yann Arthus-Bertrand participated in the Rio Earth Summit. He said later, "The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 changed my life completely, turning me into an activist." Yann decided to undertake an assessment of the state of the planet and with the sponsorship of UNESCO, launched himself into his ambitious photographic project "The Earth from Above."

In 2001, the book "The Earth from Above" was published. This book had international success with more than 4 million copies sold and translation into 27 languages. "Earth from Above" is perhaps Arthus-Bertrand's best-known work. It took about ten years for the photographer to accumulate some 150,000 pictures, from which he chose 195 to appear in this publication of 400 pages. Arthus-Bertrand traveled across eighty countries on five continents to gather the images. Critics have praised the contrasts the photographer arranges, by showing photographs of stark natural beauty such as Nigerian deserts and equally compelling, but very different pictures of human constructions, like Yankee Stadium. The photos are accompanied by economic, geographic and ecological information. In an interview published in Photo District News, Arthus-Bertrand explained his motivation for the books: "I wanted each [viewer] to be able to discover and look at the world as I saw it. Man today is utterly capable of destroying the planet, and everyone talks about that but doesn't take it seriously. I wanted to show that which is around us but we do not see." Later he added, "I think the project's been such an incredible success not because the book is beautiful, but because the Earth is beautiful. The Earth is art, and that can leave no one indifferent." The photographer has also organized exhibitions in conjunction with museums so that his work reaches the widest possible audience. Critical reaction in the press has been favorable.

In addition to "Earth from Above," Arthus-Bertrand has also created numerous other volumes of aerial photographs. Among these are "Kenya from the Air" and "Greece from the Air." They preceded "Earth from Above," and received positive reviews.

In 2005, Arthus-Bertrand created the GoodPlanet Foundation. The GoodPlanet Foundation aims to raise awareness of current environmental and social issues among all stakeholders. It puts in place field projects to take action for the planet and its inhabitants, thus offering everyone the chance to become an agent of change and work alongside the Foundation. These projects help improve the environment and the quality of life for populations worldwide and to combat climate change. The Foundation also provides philanthropists with a means to support projects that have a strong environmental and social impact, whether on the ground or through educational projects on the environment and solidarity.

From 2006 till 2011, Yann Arthus-Bertrand worked on "Seen from the Air," a documentary series in which each episode examines a particular ecological problem.

In April 2007, he started directing a full-length film originally called "Boomerang," later re-titled "Home." The film was produced by Luc Besson and financed by the PPR group (a French multinational company). In 2009, "Home" was released in 181 countries.

In 2008, he launched the project called "6 Billion Others" which has become "7 Billion Others." It is a collection of testimonies from the four corners of the Planet on what separates us and what binds us together.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand was designated as the Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations' program for the environment, in 2009.

In 2012, with Michaël Pitiot, Yann co-produced the film "Planet Ocean." The documentary is about the history of the organisms that live in the ocean, and the relationships they have with each other and with humans.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand's next film "Human" was released in 2015. The film is almost entirely composed of exclusive aerial footage and first-person stories told into the camera. It was the first film to premiere in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations, to an audience of 1,000 viewers.

In 2017, Arthus-Bertrand opened the first center dedicated to Humanism and the Ecology in Paris, Le Domaine de Longchamp. It is a GoodPlanet Foundation project.

In 2019, "Woman" by Anastasia Mikova and Yann Arthus-Bertrand was released. The film was composed of 3,000 interviews of women from 40 countries.

Achievements

• Yann Arthus-Bertrand made his name as an aerial photographer. His celebrated book "The Earth from Above," published in 2000, has sold more than 4 million copies.
  
  He is also the creator and director of the GoodPlanet Foundation.
  
  Arthus-Bertrand has been honored with many awards including the National Outdoor Book Award and the Cherry Kearton Medal and Award. 13 schools in France are named after Arthus-Bertrand at the insistence of their pupils.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Earth from Above, Updated Edition

    (After multiple journeys across five continents and sixty ...)

    1999
  • Human: A Portrait of Our World

    (Over the past three years, Yann Arthus-Bertrand and the G...)

    2015

• film

  • Home

    (Home is a 2009 documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The f...)

    2009

• movie

  • Planet Ocean 2012

Religion

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is an atheist but he has always been attracted by the values of Christianity.

He said in an interview, "We need a spiritual revolution, and this is where I relate to the Pope’s words. I am thinking of an inner revolution: our world will never change unless humanity changes as well. Even though I’m not a believer, even though I don’t believe in God, I believe in the existence of good and evil, and today we are living out the banality of evil."

Politics

The ecologist Yann Arthus-Bertrand is not affiliated with any political party.

He said once, "Ecology should not be a political party, all political parties should take ecology into account in their program. Politicians of all stripes should work together, gather their energies, their ideas, put love in politics because love will save the world!"

Views

Arthus-Bertrand is convinced that his work is meant to convince people we can no longer live like this. He explains that "from the air, you see things you can't see from the ground - you really understand the impact of man, even in a place you know well."

Quotations: "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%."

Personality

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a man who demonstrates his desire to foster collective awareness and a sense of responsibility. He uses every opportunity to speak about his obsession: humankind and the environment.

Quotes from others about the person

• Iegor Gran in his book "L’écologie en bas de chez moi" (2011): "Remember that in a previous life, Yann Arthus-Bertrand was for ten years photographer-reporter of the Paris-Dakar? Amazing conversion. The diesel ways are impenetrable."

Interests

• nature, reading

Connections

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is married to Anne Arthus-Bertrand, and has a son Tom.

Wife:

Anne Arthus-Bertrand

Son:

Tom Arthus

Sister:

Corinne Arthus-Bertrand

Sister:

Dominique Arthus-Bertrand

Sister:

Béatrice Arthus-Bertrand

Sister:

Catherine Arthus-Bertrand

Brother:

Pascal Arthus-Bertrand

colleague:

Dian Fossey

colleague:

Luc Besson

Yann Arthus-Bertrand's film "Home" was produced by Luc Besson.

References

• Yann Arthus-Bertrand website