Making art in the sky

Open this book anywhere, and you are guaranteed to gasp. Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a stunning photographer, with the spirit of a bird. These 365 photographs have been taken from the air at locations all over the world, and every one of them repays long and frequent examination.

Aerial shots are nothing new, but Arthus-Bertrand's treatment of them is. He makes art from the air and sometimes from what seems the most unpromising of subjects, such as his compelling shot of a woman working on a garbage dump in Mexico City, whom you think at first is part of the dump itself. There are some shots which are simply astonishingly beautiful as well as meditative, such as a tiny chapel as the sole building on a tiny Greek isle; logs floating on the Amazon in Brazil; a bright mosaic of carpets in Marrakesh; a Balinese fisherman harvesting seaweed in grass-green water; flamingoes' wings rippling like pink silk over a Kenyan lake.

The composition of the shots is remarkable, and the sensation of viewing landscapes both man-made and natural from such astonishing angles is to be reminded of what a curious and marvellous place the world is.

All the pictures are accompanied by a page of explanatory text. Arthus-Bertrand's focus is on environments - both urban and natural - and how they are under continual threat of damage, both from man and from occurrences such as flooding, erosion, and volcanic activity.

Thus pictures of an impossible-looking Tokyo - how could anyone squeeze into the streets of that tightly-built city? - and of a fairy-tale looking Philippine village which you at first think is floating on water and then realise is half-submerged in mud.

This is the rare book worth the fabled weight in gold - and it's very heavy.

Rosita Boland is an author and Irish Times journalist