See Exclusive—and Highly Instagrammable—Images from Gray Malin's New Coffee Table Book

Gray Malin knows a thing or two about a stunning escape. The photographer has spent the last decade capturing breathtaking idylls across all seven continents—you know them, they litter your Instagram discover feed, where his work is shared nearly constantly by fans—and building a cultishly popular lifestyle company. Now, 10 years and many hundreds of thousands of followers in, he's finally ready to look back. Today, his first career retrospective debuts in the form of a coffee table book, Gray Malin: The Essential Collection. Prior to release, the 35-year-old shared with Esquire an exclusive batch of images from the set, plus a handful of behind-the-scenes snaps that reveal, literally, how the wanderlust gets made.

Via email, Malin recalled the arduous setups for his iconic aerial shots in Italy (nearly half of his career has been spent perfecting his depiction of the Mediterranean's cerulean blue coastline) and Australia, and the inspiration for far-flung treks to the salt flats in Bolivia and icebergs of Antarctica. (A surprising run-in at the Art Basel festival in Miami gets credit for prompting his visit to the South American country.) And if you were wondering what goes into getting long-haired horses in Iceland photoshoot ready, he's got it covered. As you'll see, Malin favors doorless helicopters as his office-on-the-go by which he finds new vantage points. As he says, "From above, a simple beach or park or mountain becomes a blank canvas that allows me to see the world as art."