Wednesday, July 13, 2011

GAIA, Vacation photos from Space

After tiredlessly creating, building, and franchising the groundbreaking Cirque du Soliel, Guy Laliberté decided it was time to take a breather and became the seventh space tourist at the International Space Station.

Arts/culture/lifestyle publisher, Assouline, was kind enough to take his vacation photographs taken 220 miles up and away from the Earth's atmosphere then compiled them into a thought-provoking coffee table book, GAIA.


In a swanky fete thrown in honor of the book at the SLS Hotel, Laliberté wanted to use his vacation photographs where deserts re­semble contemporary abstract paintings, cities rise up like mini mountain ranges, and faces and figures are revealed in nature, to display the awe of Mother Earth and the continuing concerns of climate change.


As he snapped away on his Nikon D3S and Nikon D3X digital-SLR cameras, orbiting at 17,500 miles per hour and revolving at 16 tours of the earth every day, he wanted the proceeds from his 300 photographs to raise awareness of water issues.


Calling his break, a “poetic social mission” in space, he wants to fight poverty worldwide by ensuring that everyone across the planet has access to clean water, now and in the future.

The water charity, One Drop, will benefit from this debut party and future proceeds.


Not bad for vacation photos.

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