Tea picking, Kericho region, Kenya (0°23? S ? 35°16? E). Nestled between the Rift Valley and Lake Victoria, and perched at 2 200 m altitude, the Kericho region suffers from poor soil quality due to erosion, but thanks to daily rain and high sunshine hours, a tea growing industry has been able to develop. During harvest, only leaves from the tips of branches are picked. Each bush is unique and has its own colour, with different shades of green indicating the quality of the tea produced. Narrow paths separate the parcels belonging to small Kenyan farmers, whose harvest makes up 60 % of the total. Large plantations, however, run by multinationals, employ a large number of workers. Some of these companies have considered mechanical harvesting, but the cost savings in labour would be negated by the lowered quality of the tea harvested ? not to mention the social consequences for people in tea-producing regions.

**The artist: Yann Arthus-Bertrand**

Born in 1946 in Paris, Yann Arthus-Bertrand began a career in cinema as an assistant producer and as an actor. However, his passion for the animal world soon lead him first to become the director of a nature reserve in France and then to the Maasai Mara in Kenya, where he worked on his thesis, at the same time training as a hot-air balloon pilot. As a press report photographer, he has worked with magazines such as National Geographic, Géo, Life, Paris Match, and Figaro Magazine. In 1990, he completed his first documentary work combining photography and video in a project called Good Breeding. One year later, the artist and his team founded the photographic agency ?Altitude?. In 1992, Yann Arthus-Bertrand decided to begin a huge photographic project that would cover the state of the world and its inhabitants ? ?The Earth from Above?. Published in 1999, the associated book was an international success, selling over 4 million copies. In 2006, he enters in the Académie des Beaux-arts [French Academy of Fine Arts]. Since then, he has produced a number of projects aimed at increasing awareness of ecological and environmental issues, such as the well-known films Home (2009) and Planet Ocean (2012). His highly anticipated latest film Human is due to be released in September 2015.