Interview Patrick Kasingsing
Images Daily Overview
Satellite imagery (c) DigitalGlobe
Hello Benjamin! What inspired you to start Daily Overview?
About four years ago*, I learned about the “overview effect” from a movie that I watched. There were interviews with astronauts who spent a significant amount of time in space—an experience that fundamentally changed them as human beings. They came back to Earth with a greater sense of connectivity with others and an understanding of how fragile the planet was, and they wanted to share this shift in perspective with other people. I became obsessed with the idea and couldn’t stop thinking about its potential to change the way we see the world and treat each other. I was inspired to bring it to more people.
How did you go about making the project a reality?
I had no idea the project was going to grow to where it is now. I couldn’t have expected those things (museum exhibitions, books) to occur when I started it. But what I discovered was that I needed people to follow along with the progress and to stay interested. We started sharing the images on social media, primarily on Instagram and Facebook, where we built an audience and a following. The media wrote about it, which was great, and that kind of got it off the ground. That led to the books happening. It’s gone from one step to the next slowly but surely.
The most important thing at the end of the day is that we had very good content. Every single day trying to get a good new picture up for a number of years, it gave people something to look forward to, something that they are excited to receive.
How do you source or create the satellite imagery used for the project?
We work with a few satellite companies that provide us access to the raw image files, which we artistically manipulate and clean up. There’s a research, curation, composition, and a writing process to make the whole thing come to life.
“I am hopeful. In addition to seeing all the negative things and all of the destruction we’ve caused, it’s also clear that solutions exist.”
What is the biggest insight that you gained in initiating such a project?
I’ve learned so much about human nature and our activities around the world. That has been the focus of the imagery pretty much all the time, showing the places where we impact the planet. Nearly every single day for four years, I’ve tried to find new and interesting stories to show. The different themes that would come up—agriculture, energy, mining, urban planning, transportation, or waste—these are all prominent parts of modern civilization as we know it. But these are often things that we don’t think about on a daily basis. My knowledge about the world and what we’re doing to it has been greatly expanded by doing this project. And we’ll continue expanding it.
Are you hopeful about the future of the planet based from these photos?
I am hopeful. In addition to seeing all of the negative things and all of the destruction that we’ve caused, it’s also clear that solutions exist: renewable energy instead of dirty energy, or thoughtful, sustainable agriculture versus something that is mono-culture and destructive, and there’s smart city planning. From these images, you can glean that there are solutions and new directions that we can take things. I’m inherently an optimistic person, as you can probably guess by doing a project like this. Some scientists might disagree, but I think you have to be optimistic if you want to create a better future.
What were some of the Overview images that made a lasting impression on you? Why so?
I would have to say it was one of the ones I discovered first, of a refugee camp in Kenya. It was a beautiful image with reds and browns and symmetry set amidst a stunning landscape, but then when you learn about what you’re seeing in the image—the world’s largest refugee camp with more than 450,000 displaced refugees—you have to take a step back and consider the fact that you can enjoy the aesthetics of something that you’re looking at but also struggle with the fact that you still like it. I think that is exemplary of what the project has become. It’s a new and interesting way to often show things that are destructive or negative. It’s made me realize just how powerful imagery could be.
What inspired your decision to create a book out of the Daily Overview project?
I’ve always thought of doing a book. I think it made a lot of sense to bring together what I’ve done so far in a cohesive, beautiful, and tangible way. It’s amazing to have something physical and solid to show your work rather than something that just exists digitally. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to hand someone a book and say that it’s representative of what you do.
Are there any interesting anecdotes or instances related to the project and its viewers, perhaps how they reacted to the images, that made a mark on you?
One thing that happened that I love to talk about is when the Overview book came out, a lot of people said they loved the book, but that their children loved it more. They’re reading the book to their kids at night. And they were able to teach them new stories about the environment, about what we’re doing to the planet, and then teach them the concepts and it was just so interesting to hear that the kids were loving it so much. And this inspired me to start another conversation with Penguin Random House to explore the idea of doing a children’s book, so it was an idea that came from other people, and now it is potentially going to happen. This is an amazing example of putting an idea out there and getting to see how people react to it and who might like it, to find that it’s very different from who you imagined it to be and that it can lead to new and exciting opportunities.
Where do you intend to take the Daily Overview project next?
I would love to open a physical space. A gallery in San Francisco, where I live, to not only have somewhere to display our imagery and our art but also to hold events and talks related to the overview effect. I don’t necessarily know what the timeline is for a project like that, but that’s where I see it going.
This is our Starters issue*, where we celebrate that initial stage, the stage where you start things. However, like all things that begin, there is an end. Have you foreseen the end of the Daily Overview project and are you considering starting off a new one?
I would love to. I think I need to get this project somewhere that is self-sustaining, where I can kind of move away from it, or end it at some point. But I don’t think the project will continue to exist exactly as it is now. I see it changing and doing a whole number of different things. That’s a decision for me to make overtime. It’s a great question. I’ll have to make a decision as I go along to see what makes the most sense, but I can see it going either way. •
Keep an eye on the world with the Daily Overview on Instagram at @dailyoverview and at over-view.com
*Originally published in Kanto No. 1, 2018. Edits were made to update the article.
