Human.

The works of Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Yann Arthus-Bertrand, born in 1946, has always had a passion for the animal world and the natural environment. When he was 30, he travelled to Kenya with his wife with whom he carried out a three-year study on the behaviour of a family of lions in the Massaï Mara reserve. While in Africa, he earned his living as a hot-air balloon pilot. This was when he really discovered the earth from above and the advantages of viewing what he was studying from afar to gain an overall picture of an area and its resources.

Little by little, Yann became a reporter focusing on environmental issues, and collaborating with Géo, National Geographic, Life, Paris Match, Figaro Magazine etc. In 1991, he founded the first aerial photography agency in the world.

For the First Rio Conference in 1992, Yann decided to prepare a big work for the year 2000 on the state of the planet: The Earth From the Air. This book encountered a great success and over 3 million copies were sold. The outdoor exhibitions have been seen so far by about 200 Million people. Yann then created the Goodplanet Foundation that aims to raise public awareness of environmental issues, implement carbon offset programmes and fight deforestation with local NGOs.

Within the Foundation, he developed the 6 billion Others project, that has just changed names and become 7 billion Others. More than 6000 interviews were filmed in 84 countries. From a Brazilian fisherman to a Chinese shopkeeper, from a German performer to an Afghan farmer, all answered the same questions about their fears, dreams, ordeals, hopes: “What have you learned from your parents? What do you want to pass on to your children? What difficult circumstances have you been through? What does love mean to you?” Forty or so questions that help us to find out what separates and what unites us.

In 2006, Yann started the series Vu Du Ciel, a television documentary series of several one-and-a-half hour episodes, each dealing with a particular environmental problem. Encouraged by his television experiment, Yann Arthus-Bertrand undertook the production of a full-length feature film, HOME, that deals with the state of our planet. The film was released on 2009 on television, on the Internet, on DVD and in cinemas simultaneously worldwide, almost entirely free of charge to the public. More than 600 million people have seen it so far.

In 2011, Yann directed two films for the United Nations : the film Forest, official film of the 2011 International Year of the Forest, and the film Desertification. For Rio + 20, Yann directed the film “Planet Ocean” with Michael Pitiot. This film aims to promote understanding of the importance of oceans in the ecosystem. In the same time, the GoodPlanet Foundation initiated a “Ocean Programme”, to raise awareness of the importance of marine ecosystems.

HOME (2009) – the movie

In 2012, Yann began filming his next feature film called “Human“. At the crossroads of “Home” and the project “7 Billion Others”, “Human” is comprised of interviews with people from all conditions in over 45 countries, and aerial images gleaned all over the world. Filming takes place in very diverse landscapes since June 2012. Particular, from January 2014, Thailand, Antarctica, Dubai, Brazil, Pakistan, Cuba or Japan. The film is now available.

In July 2013, Yann Arthus-Bertrand opened his photographic studio in Paris. This friendly place, open to all, is to allow everyone to discover his way of working, to better understand what happens behind each of his photos and meet his team.

The work of Yann Arthus-Bertrand has shown its commitment to awaken a collective responsibility and conscience. In this awareness “campaign” the objective is to reach to the most people possible. All the films produced by HOPE are available free of charge to NGOs, nonprofits and schools in the frame work of environmental education [from Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s web site].