Mesmerising photographs from the sky to bring some perspective to your day

If you’re a person who relishes trips abroad for the opportunity to Instagram cloud photos from the airplane window, then we’ve got just the project for you. The Daily Overview is a website which provides a collection of images of the Earth’s surface, taken from up high. Up very high, in fact. But this isn’t a concept driven by aesthetics.

“Our project was inspired, and derives its name, from an idea known as the Overview Effect,” its creator Benjamin explains. “This term refers to the psychological shift that astronauts experience when given the opportunity to look down and view the Earth as a whole from outer space.

“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, or the devastating impact that we’ve had on our planet,” he continues.

Benjamin and his team create and share one “Overview” – the site’s name for each image – every day, to highlight the impact we have had on the Earth. “We work with Digital Globe’s database of satellite imagery and then add an artistic orientation to bring out the mesmerising aesthetic that this perspective provides. Each Overview ultimately 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.”

In spite of the team’s grand aims, it hasn’t lost sight of the simple beauty of its chosen images. It has recently created a print shop to sell large-scale prints of some of its favourite shots, which can all be purchased online. There are also plans to create a photography book, “to help the audience see the bigger picture. I’m excited to see where we will take it!”