What we see

Photography, influenced by the digital mediation of images, is increasingly reduced to a kind of pointing. The panoramic format is a way to get beyond photographic pointing and create a more expansive and complex vision of the world.

So much of the history of photography has been a kind of pointing. Framing a small section of the world that the photographer demands we pay further attention to. The panoramic format stands against that limited notion of photographic space and brings a new challenge and freshness to street photography; a practice that had become bogged down in its own conventions. The panorama is particularly suited to describing the landscape and how our relationships play out in it. It is a challenging framework for making new photographic constructions that is closer to how we actually see the world.

The panoramic camera used for this work describes the relationship between people and the landscape in a uniquely inclusive way. It is a 1970s aerial camera that I have adapted for use on the ground. The combination of the wide expanse it covers, nearly 180 degrees, and a normal focal length lens, describes both people and place in a natural way that I have never seen before in images of this extent. It is a unique tool for describing the environment and discovering new photographic possibilities.

In this work, I have been curious about tourism, family, and urban spaces. How do we construct our urban spaces as places for work and entertainment? Where do we bring our children and what do they witness?