STRETCH: THE WORLD OF PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY, Nick Meers, RotoVision SA, $30, hardback, 144 pp.
"Stretch: The World of Panoramic Photography," by Nick Meers, offers readers a stunning introduction to the world of extremely wide imagery. Through the use of Flatback cameras, Swinglens cameras and rotational cameras, Meers and nine other photographers present images — many encompassing 360 degrees — which will provoke "ooohs" and "ahhhhs" from readers.
One of the book's participating photographers, Everen T. Brown, is a Utah native. His image "Tibetan Snowfall, Drepung Monastery, Lhasa, Tibet" graces the publication's cover, fully demonstrating the impact of a panoramic photograph.
Meers chose Brown to participate in the project after an extensive search. "Everen T. Brown," writes Meers in the book, "is the foremost user of the unique 360-degree Globuscope camera, a strange-looking machine that weighs just three pounds, can be handheld, is simple to transport in a backpack and will go anywhere as it needs no batteries."
Brown spends more than 100 days each year photographing images. He has traveled to more than 100 countries and shot nearly 100,000 images. From his early years, he was interested in photography and wanted to "see the world, absolutely certain in the back of his mind that 'man would eventually completely ruin it all.' "
When film is loaded into the Globuscope, it must be shot almost immediately, using up the entire roll of film. There are no batteries in the camera — it is spring-driven, and therefore must be discharged minutes after being primed. It has two shutter speeds, an "outdoor" speed of 1 second and an "indoor" speed of 3 seconds.
"Everen has very clear-cut ideas about composing successful 360-degree images," writes Meers. Brown often sets the Globuscope to spin around three or four full rotations to enable easier cropping of the image later; he never manipulates his images.
Brown hopes his photographs of special places will last longer than any "normal" picture. "They contain so much information that it is possible to notice something new and different with every viewing."
The other photographers in "Stretch," David Noton, Macduff Everton, Josef Koudelka, Benjamin Porter, Horst Hamann, Joe Cornish, Karen Kuehn and Mark Segal, are as adept at their image-making as Brown; their shooting styles and approaches to the technology of panoramic photography is discussed. Pages dealing specifically with exposure, movement, printing and displaying are also considered.
But the best thing about this book is the sumptuous photographs.
Meer's "Stretch: the world of panoramic photography" makes a wonderful coffee-table addition, giving readers hours of enjoyment.
E-mail: gagon@desnews.com