Overview: A New Perspective of Earth

Just received my copy of Overview and absolutely love the photos. We try to guess what the photo might be before reading the sidebar. Look forward to sharing photos with visitors to our home. Great coffee table book. Thanks Benjamin Grant!

I bought this book because I wanted to decorate my walls with these images, but even the smallest print available (12"x18") on the Daily Overview website costs $100! This book has roughly 50 full 2 page images though (and many others nearly as large), so I plan to cut the binding and mount my favorites on foamboard. The result should be roughly 10"x18" prints (with a small seam in the middle) at a fraction of the cost! But it turns out I love this book so much I'll probably buy a second copy to keep on my coffee table.

An amazing collection of satellite photographs that is somehow a step above the already brilliant @dailyoverview instagram account. Don't think "Overview" will ever leave my coffee table. Love the "Where We Are Not" chapter, which shines with all sorts of abstract beauty.

I just happened upon Benjamin's Instagram account about a year ago. I don't remember what the picture was that initially caught my attention, but after enjoying the single image I clicked on his account to see what else he had for me. I was not disappointed! I've been enjoying his Instagram account ever since.

When my book finally arrived, I took it out of the box and immediately sat in my recliner for about 30 minutes (all that my 6-year-old would allow me) enjoying it. I happen to be an avid reader, but if you are NOT a reader, you will find yourself reading this anyway! There's simply no chance that you'll look at the pictures and carelessly flip the page without the least bit of curiosity about the "what" or "where" of the image before you. I didn't get far in that 30 minutes. The images have to be savored, the captions simply must be read, and you have no choice but to explain the images to any nosey toddlers in the vicinity while insisting that you can flip your own pages, thank you very much!

And let's face it - these images are so much better in a large book than a little Samsung. I don't own a single photography book other than this one. In our day and age, I guess it takes a lot to impress me or to hold my interest. We have so much available to us that true intrigue can be very elusive. Well, this book will definitely intrigue!

I've also never bothered to leave a review on the store before. Just too lazy to bother. But I really felt I should. This book is just different. There's not much else like it. Of course I'm referring to the content. However, the presentation and organization are stellar. Very nicely done!

I love this book. The images are not only strikingly beautiful and interesting - they are thought provoking, surprising, and really make you think about why and how the earth came to look the way it does in these snapshots from above. If you're like me and have followed the Instagram account @dailyoverview from which this piece of work arose, you will be blown away by how Overview absolutely brings the images to another level. The book itself is big and beautiful, the images are vibrant, and you will find yourself poring over the pages like I did.

As a follower of Daily Overview on Facebook I bought this book on whim thinking it would be a pretty neat idea to have a collection of the images in hardcover. It arrived today and I "read" it cover to cover. I'm stunned by the impact; Brilliantly, simply arranged; powerfully thought provoking. You won't be disappointed with this book.

Benjamin, this book is absolutely stunning. I'm in awe and at a complete loss for words; these images are incredibly powerful. I've purchased countless books over my education and career as a young architect, and this one takes the cake. Wonderfully well executed, sir!

Gorgeous book and content, however my books came terribly packaged (without any padding so the books were able to rattle around). The book now has multiple dents and scratches due to the poor packaging. It's such a shame because the book itself is absolutely stunning.

The Earth suffers greatly under our stewardship. Benjamin Grant collects and reposts satellite images from around the world documenting it. These publicly available images are starkly beautiful and ultra-high quality, but looking at them in series is most uncomfortable. They depict evidence of Man: the discolored water, the scarred earth, the intense clusters of humanity, broken every so often by a spot of greenery.

Many of the shots are magnificent, poster-worthy and suitable for framing. Two that stand out for me are the solar array tromp oeil that appears to be a giant sphere, the ugly abscess of an open pit mine in Botswana and a section of Mexico City (See below). From the ugly ports to the massively complex airports to the checkerboard housing developments and agricultural fields – evidence of Man is everywhere, and it is never an improvement. There are some interesting before and afters – Burning Man during and after, a refugee camp where there just desert before, and polluted lakes in various states of distress. Either to prove the point or to relieve readers of angst, the last chapter, just a few shots, are of places untouched by Man.

Overview is a print best-of the same service on the internet, where Grant calls it dailyoverview. It is evidence for some future civilization as to what went wrong.

David Wineberg

Benjamin, this book is absolutely stunning. I'm in awe and at a complete loss for words; these images are incredibly powerful. I've purchased countless books over my education and career as a young architect, and this one takes the cake. Wonderfully well executed, sir!

Gorgeous book and content, however my books came terribly packaged (without any padding so the books were able to rattle around). The book now has multiple dents and scratches due to the poor packaging. It's such a shame because the book itself is absolutely stunning.

The Earth suffers greatly under our stewardship. Benjamin Grant collects and reposts satellite images from around the world documenting it. These publicly available images are starkly beautiful and ultra-high quality, but looking at them in series is most uncomfortable. They depict evidence of Man: the discolored water, the scarred earth, the intense clusters of humanity, broken every so often by a spot of greenery.

Many of the shots are magnificent, poster-worthy and suitable for framing. Two that stand out for me are the solar array tromp oeil that appears to be a giant sphere, the ugly abscess of an open pit mine in Botswana and a section of Mexico City (See below). From the ugly ports to the massively complex airports to the checkerboard housing developments and agricultural fields – evidence of Man is everywhere, and it is never an improvement. There are some interesting before and afters – Burning Man during and after, a refugee camp where there just desert before, and polluted lakes in various states of distress. Either to prove the point or to relieve readers of angst, the last chapter, just a few shots, are of places untouched by Man.

Overview is a print best-of the same service on the internet, where Grant calls it dailyoverview. It is evidence for some future civilization as to what went wrong.

David Wineberg

I bought this coffee-table book after seeing some of the images at the "Después del fin del mundo" exhibition in Barcelona. (It's still on, you should go.)

The book comes from a blog/instagram account that's been showing top-down photos of human impacts on the environment for the past few years. The photos are amazing, and they also help you understand, a little better, how varied and massive are our impacts on the planet. (The largest impacts, via climate change, are mostly invisible, which is unhelpful when it comes to motivating people to act on climate change.)

Here is how they explain themselves:
"Our project was inspired, and derives its name, from an idea known as the Overview Effect. This term refers to the sensation astronauts have when given the opportunity to look down and view the Earth as a whole. They have the chance to appreciate our home in its entirety, to reflect on its beauty and its fragility all at once. That's the cognitive shift that we hope to inspire.
From our line of sight on the earth's surface, it’s impossible to fully appreciate the beauty and intricacy of the things we’ve constructed, the sheer complexity of the systems we’ve developed, or the devastating impact that we’ve had on our planet. We believe that beholding these forces as they shape our Earth is necessary to make progress in understanding who we are as a species, and what is needed to sustain a safe and healthy planet.
As a result, the Overviews (what we call these images) focus on the places and moments where human activity—for better or for worse—has shaped the landscape. Each Overview starts with a thought experiment. We consider the places where man has left his mark on the planet and then conduct the necessary research to identify locations (and the corresponding geo-coordinates) to convey that idea.
The mesmerizing flatness seen from this vantage point, the surprising comfort of systematic organization on a massive scale, or the vibrant colors that we capture will hopefully turn your head. However, once we have that attention, we hope you will go beyond the aesthetics, contemplate just exactly what it is that you're seeing, and consider what that means for our planet."

Bottom line: I give this book FIVE STARS for its beauty and message. If you don't get the book, then at least browse the site... and think a little of how to reduce our impacts on this beautiful -- and quite useful -- earth.

I bought this book on their book release tour, but I've been following their Instagram feed for ages. Superior book. Gorgeous pressing with stunning, high-quality photos. I was always impressed by how these distant images of Earth look like beautiful works of expressionist art,and in this edition you can really look at the details. But that said, the reader also is given a whole new perspective on our planet. This book is not just a collection of amazing photographs - it's a call to action to save what we have before it - and by extension we - are gone. A must-have for fans of photography, of art, and absolutely for protectors of the environment.

Overview is as provocative as it is beautiful. The imagery makes the book easy to pick up, while the organization reveals it's thoughtfulness. Benjamin has structured his book in a way that displays his perceptive understanding of human impact on Earth. Each chapter has a theme related to what Humans do- for example, "Harvest" is a collection of images showcasing areas where we gather our food, "Extract" contains images of locations we get our materials from. This formatting of the chapters lends itself to quick immersion in the concept at hand and consideration about our individual impact on our planet's health. Benjamin's captions on the photos are always concise and informative, making it easy to understand what exactly you are looking at, before continuing to flow through the beautiful, often surreal looking, images. Remembering Earth is our only home and how we affect it is as important now as it's ever been. Aerial imagery has the uncanny ability to showcase our positives and negatives without editorialization- Ben has tapped into something unique. I appreciate the perspective Ben brings through his work, and I hope he continues to create works that do the same. Also, the price is amazing!

Update!
I received a replacement copy in just two days. Great service from the store and a nice note from the author offering assistance in making everything right. Very nice, and wonderful to see someone who cares about their work start to finish. I feel a little guilty about complaining.
Now I can focus on these amazing images.

I was anxious to get this book. I look forward to the Daily Overview images on Instagram. They rarely fail to please. It's because of that I was very disappointed when I received my copy of this book. Although the images are good, the overall quality of the book is poor. The cover had excess glue (from the binding process I assume) all over both the front and back. Very sloppy and not hard to see if someone was looking.
Worse though is that the book will not lie flat. The pages are warped so when viewed from the edge, there are gaps at various places throughout the book. I have had it under weights for a couple of weeks but it's not much better. Sad.

This book has fantastic photographs from the satellites of various places. Some of the pictures in the book include pictures from the satellites of the following places: two highways coming together Southeast of Madrid, the canal system of Amsterdam, the planned city of La Plata in Argentina, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.

This is an exceptional book. It gives you a bird view of many places on planet Earth and changes your perspective of familiar landmarks. If you love photography and love to look at Earth from a different angle - this is the book for you.

'Overview' is more than the perfect coffee table book, it is a treasure trove of awesome images and insightful musings about our remarkable planet from a remarkable aerial perspective.

Ben is a wizard at combining stunning satellite photography with thoughtful messaging to present his own overview of the way in which we humans affect our planet. Beyond being an aesthetic masterpiece, the book is a philosophical discourse about Earth and its inhabitants that will take your attention away from local trivialities and place it on global significances.

Buy this book for its beautiful photographs. Buy this book for its teachings about our planet. Buy this book for its promotion of a collective global mindset.

I love this book--it's the perfect conversation starter, and the stories behind the photos juxtapose the beauty and horror of human impact on the earth. I began as a follower of the instagram and website, got a print for my boyfriend for his birthday (he is an airplane nerd, so the airports were perfect), and snatched up a book for myself when it came out. I got another copy for my uncle and aunt for Christmas.

Being able to see our patterns reminds me of kids looking at an ant farm; it highlights humanity as a collective, not individuals even though we might feel that was.

Fascinating. Provides a terrific perspective and the ways humans have altered the earth and hopefully might inspire better stewardship.Terrific photos and ample descriptions without being to brief or too preachy.