The PAN spirit
Panoramic is a format, a photographic format. But not just that.
PANtha rei
Because pan means totality, every, the whole. Just all. That’s the Greek etymology of the pan prefix in words like panacea, pantheon, pandemic, pandemonium, etc . And panoramic, all-around view.
Of course, in a picture it also means to represent or register the whole, not just a portion. Actually, a panoramic photograph is also only a frame, a part of the whole, but a very long one usually.
Some panoramic views are known since the early times of photography,
this multiple photo’s view was made by Edward Muybridge in 1878, taken from the tower of the Mark Hopkins mansion, then the highest point in San Francisco, 116 metres (381 feet) above the harbour, which commanded an uninterrupted, sweeping view of the entire city, its harbour, and San Francisco Bay.
Different panoramic cameras were developed to get different formats
Panorama camera by Porro (1858)
Paris, 1845 - 1850, unknown photographer cylindrical daguerreotype
Aerial panorama image of Manhattan (1949)
*researchgate dot net for previous three images
In photography modern times many artists used the format, coming to mind Josef Sudek or more recently his well-known compatriot Josef Koudelka, in photographs like for instance the series “Archaeology”
Sarcastically, the PAN spirit could perhaps be resumed in that scene from Monthy Piton’s The meaning of life in where a fat man in a restaurant is asked while having a look at the Menu about what he wanted to order. His answer was I want all of it. Of course, that’s just sarcasm, …the gluttony of image space, not happy enough with conventional frames let’s go to an all-around view.
The fact is panoramic views, the PAN spirit, exists much before photography, like next picture shows
Pierre Prevost Preliminary canvas for the Panorama of Constantinople, detail, 1818
And many others along art history, since its beginning. It seems the PAN spirit is a kind of natural perception to be found in ourselves and developed…
I met Koudelka once and later got a Hasselblad Xpan and sold it.
But the PAN spirit remains, and now that I got a digital camera making it possible, some opportunities aren’t missed.
Here some recent samples
Of course, panoramas aren't just crops, panoramic photography requires a particular skill, the space is wider and has to be filled. The PAN spirit understands that.
Also, the spirit enwidens and not just pretends to see wider, but also to create a new vision, to expand it and let emerge a new language. Panoramas are not only long landscapes, but its visual potential is also far beyond that.
Panoramic isn’t only wide or high, panoramic photography’s a new way of seeing. Its extension to the world of understanding is just that, the pan spirit, the one of totality
Absolutely and beautifully done.