This Is Mars: Midi Edition

This Is Mars offers a thrilling visual experience of the surface of the red planet. The multi-award-winning French editor and designer Xavier Barral has chosen and composed photographic frames, drawn from the comprehensive photographic map of Mars made by the U.S. observation satellite MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter), to revel in the wonder of Mars. What Yann Arthus-Bertrand did with a light aircraft for The Earth from the Air, Barral does for Mars―by scouring tens of thousands of gigabytes of satellite photographs available from NASA, seeking out the most distinct images of the planet’s surface. The result is visionary―a great science book, a unique artist’s book, and a stunning object. The photographs are accompanied by an introduction from research scientist Alfred S. McEwen, principle investigator of the HiRISE telescope; an essay by astrophysicist Francis Rocard, who explains the story of Mars’s origins and its evolution; and a timeline by geophysicist Nicolas Mangold, who demystifies some of Mars’s geological history. Now available as a mid-sized, accessibly priced edition, This Is Mars will excite lovers of great photobooks, and everyone curious about the universe and beyond.

Xavier Barral is a photographer, former art director, and founder of Paris-based publishers Éditions Xavier Barral. Among other awards, he has received the Art Book Prize at the Frankfurt Book Fair for Andy Warhol, cinéma, published by Éditions Carré. Éditions Xavier Barral was established in 2002.

Dr. Alfred S. McEwen is professor in the Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, and director of the Planetary Image Research Lab (PIRL).

Francis Rocard is an astrophysicist and leader of the Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES) Mars exploration program.

Nicolas Mangold is a geophysicist based in Nantes, France.