any photographer lucky enough to have a retrospective of their life s work created with the quality put into this book and accompanying dvd would have to be happy. this is a wonderful volume of extraordinary photographs and excellent text. being a photographer traces the life and photographs of yann arthus-bertrand, a french photographer who spent years in africa as a young man. it was from there that he first started photographing the earth from above as he gave hot air balloon rides to tourists. yawn spent more years photographing major sporting events, travel destinations, and other projects before returning to aerial photography to produce his famous book earth from above. the superbly printed photographs in this book cover a lifetime of great work and are supplemented with biographical text by sophie troubac. the accompanying dvd makes it a great combination and inspirational book for anyone interested in photography.