Below from Above

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Seen from hundreds of feet in the air, humans engaged in activities on earth below look vulnerable, small, resourceful, insignificant and noble all at once. Swiss aerial photographer Gerster, whose pictures grace National Geographic and Omni, explores the mystery, enchantment and unpredictability of this dizzying art form in 90 often spectacular new photographs and 43 shots pulled together from previous books. Full-page color photos, juxtaposed side by side, play up universal patterns; Filipino fish traps eerily resemble salt pans near Senegal, a canyon mine's concentric circles echo a football stadium crowd. Gerster's story-captions are enlightening; one note explains that a magma lake inside an Ethiopian volcano crater looks like a bubbling hell because the skin of the lava continually breaks. The album proclaims Earth to be a precious resource not to be wasted. (July 15)

Library Journal

Gerster's collection of aerial landscape photographs is a triumph of aesthetics and abstraction. He treats the earth as an objet d'art, and finds small truths hidden around the planet, both in its natural design and its human amendments. Most of the images are paired in the book in a contrapuntal style that suggests themes of irony or confrontation. Some impressions command whole pages wherein curves and diagonals mingle in an effortless symmetry that harkens to the pioneering, albeit more fastidious, work of Aaron Siskind. The quality of reproduction is excellent, with superbly saturated colors. Gerster's commentaries are well written and informative, and he shares his technical expertise generously. A book to enthrall. James L. Jablonowski, History Dept., Marquette Univ., Milwaukee