Published by Harry N. Abrams in 2013, Man and Sea brings together Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s aerial photography and Brian Skerry’s underwater work to examine the ocean as both a planetary system and a human domain. Its range extends from Arctic waters to the tropics, moving between expansive views of reef formations and close encounters with marine animals. The sea appears not as an abstract expanse, but as a network of habitats, resources and human pressures.

The book’s defining structure is its change of altitude. Arthus-Bertrand observes coastlines, islands and reefs from above, revealing patterns and scales that exceed ordinary perception; Skerry works beneath the surface, where bodies, habitats and ecological relationships become immediate. These positions do more than supply visual variety. Together they connect geographic form with submerged life, allowing the ocean to be read simultaneously as landscape and living environment.

Photography is accompanied by writing on currents, food chains and other marine mechanisms, as well as interviews with researchers and activists. Overfishing and pollution are treated within this wider ecological account rather than as isolated subjects. The resulting emphasis is on interdependence: between physical systems and species, between marine resources and human societies, and between visual wonder and the consequences of use. Across 304 pages, the book gives sustained space to this combination of scale, evidence and environmental argument.

For a photobook collection, Man and Sea is notable for the clarity of its dual perspective. It places two specialized photographic practices—large-scale aerial observation and close underwater documentation—within a single editorial framework. Its interest therefore lies not only in individual images, but in the way photographs, scientific explanation and first-person expertise are assembled to address sustainable development. As a substantial 2013 hardcover, it offers collectors a focused example of environmental photography shaped as both pictorial study and public ecological document.