It’s time for our weekly fix of odd and unusual photography news and today’s three-pack is surely one of the most eclectic yet connected ones we’ve had thus far.

The Mother of all Panoramas

Yesterday on our pro blog we brought you a tutorial that explains How to go Big, one method behind which is to Stitch a panorama.

Dan Havlik seems to have stumbled across the mother of all panoramas, created by Andrew Bodrov.  And this is no ordinary panorama, it is a 360-degree interactive panorama.  But here’s the kicker: it’s on . . . Mars!  Bodrov apparently stitched it together from NASA images.

Take a spin and check out the Red Planet.  As fascinating as the terrain is, what’s most interesting is to tilt upward and see what the ‘sky’ and the Sun look like on Mars.

‘Oh Snap!’ or ‘Oh Claptrap!’?

There’s another way to be ‘interactive’ – interact with the exhibits at an exhibition!  That’s what Oh Snap! Your Take on Our Photographs at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh attempts to do.  In this “collaborative photography project” that got underway one week back, visitors to the exhibition are invited to return with their own photographs that ‘respond’ to or have some connection with a work at the exhibition, and submit them.  If accepted, they’re set on the wall close to the ‘parent’ “inspiration.”

According to Nikita Mishra’s news story there was quite a ‘response’.

Hmm.  Is the intention to spot photographic talent?  Is it a new fad that panders to egos?  Is the goal to reel in those all-important admission fees?  Or is this a valid mode of exhibiting and artistic expression?

The ‘Scanning Camera’: John Neff’s ‘Camera-Scanner’

Confusing, isn’t it?  Whatever it is, there’s no ‘Oh Snap’ here, rather, there’s an ‘Um Whirrr’.  That’s because John Neff’s cameras are “made without shutters or viewfinders, [instead they] capture images using a slow-moving linear scanning array, rather than a full-field sensor,” explains Chicago Artist’s Resource.  

The idea is to allow time to elapse while the scanner scans the composition and creates a photograph with an antique look.  These cameras took a lot of time and trouble to construct for photographs that look like ones you can see in this slideshow.

Art or gimmick?  Knotty questions once again!  The Renaissance Society, however, likes Neff’s camera-scanner photos well enough to host a solo exhibition.  One thing’s for sure: they have an unusual tonal range and texture. 

 

Tags: artistic collaboration, camera-scanner, mars, panorama, scanning camera