Yann Arthus-Bertrand

The Earth is Art, The Photographer is only a Witness

No one is an environmentalist by birth. It is only your path, your life, your travels that awaken you.

To have success in your professional life is not so hard. To succeed as a man is more difficult.

I learned to be a hot-air balloon pilot to take tourists over the Masai Mara Reserve in order to earn some money and finance the work I was doing with my wife, Anne. We were studying the life of a family of lions for more than two years. Taking pictures was a way to capture information we could not put in words.

The lions taught me photography. They taught me patience and the sense of beauty, a beauty that penetrates you.