Jay Hart

I was schooled in image science, geomorphology, cartography and plant ecology. Ten years was spent overseas working as a mapmaker in more than 20 countries. From many different places and experiences grew my beliefs that landscape is a major muse for our higher ambitions, and that we humans must accept our management commitments while sharing the planet with all forms of life.

When worldwide elevation data from the Space Shuttle’s Feb 2000 mapping mission were made optimal and released in 2005, I began a process of joining these consistent and pixel-based layers with Landsat imagery of natural color. Years of testing and public feedback led to more vivid and resolved results, as well as improved custom palettes for raw elevation graphics. After fifteen years a global sample of about 1700 regions has been established on a website whose clear imagery is given to teachers and illustrators for free. Large format prints are sold on inkjet matte-paper as well as metal dyesub media. Soon have-it your-way cropping and resize will be offered to print buyers.