Human geography
One of the goals of The Archives of the Planet was to serve as a source of documentation for the study of humankind. Humans were to be shown in direct relation to their environment, demonstrating the connection between each individual and their surroundings.. The idea is already reflected in Human geography, a book written by the scientific director of The Archives of the Planet, Jean Brunhes, in 1910: “The set of events involving human activity forms a truly special group among the surface phenomena of our planet; we call the study of this category of geographical phenomena "Human geography." But contrary to the tradition of academic geography, which was always monographic and based on intensive study of narrow fields, the object of study in this case was conceived as the unfolding of a vast geographical array based on a given theme. This allowed for a comparative approach that focused on how a particular element (for example, of a geological nature) produced variations. It was also possible to observe the consequences of these variations on the phenomenon being studied (which could be architectural, ethnographic, landscape-related, or cultural). From this perspective, photographs and films constituted the material that allowed for the precise classification and comparison of phenomena, revealing the real relationships between the specific environment and the products of the people who lived in it.
