Hi. Thanks for taking the time to explore these panoramas. You might be wondering about me and why I made them.

Quick exposure: 

I’m a native New Yorker and a professional photographer. For 30 years I’ve completed assignments for a wide range of advertising, editorial and commercial clients. That work isn't currently shown here as I work to redesign this website. I will repost that work when I have completed organizing my many panorama galleries. In the meantime, if you have a commercial assignment and need to see work samples, please email me for a link.

I’ve been a long distance runner for 10 years. Almost all of these panoramas were made while out running or bike riding. I use an iPhone with the default iOS camera app in Panorama mode. My only manipulation is to convert them to black and white. Any panoramas that were not made while running or cycling have been inspired by what I learned while running. I now make panoramas constantly. Seeing and describing the world in panorama mode is compelling.

Wider view:

Looking at the results, you might think it unlikely these panoramas were all made using an iPhone. But my years as a photographer have given me the experience of using every sort of camera from the smallest 35mm rangefinders to the largest view cameras. In that time, cameras have never really excited me. The pictures photographers create with them do. And for me, the wider the picture, the greater my fascination.

When Apple first released the Panorama mode on the iPhone 6 it wasn't something to take very seriously so my approach with it was immediately playful and experimental. It was a fun toy to see what the world looked like while using it. In many ways, it is still a very simple tool but with significant capabilities. The renowned street photographer Gary Winogrand once said, "I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.” That has largely been my approach while making these panoramas. When successful, they are convincing facsimiles of the world. While they are persuasive in that they look like standard two dimensional pictures taken from a fixed perspective, we don't usually see pictures wrap around the viewer. Yet these remain true to themselves as photographs. 

The real fun of making panoramas with a sense of play is that failure can be embraced as part of the creative process. With the specific constraints of panorama mode, once I begin making an exposure I can never fully predict what might happen in the field of view by the end of it. That the image is made over several seconds allows time, instinct, chance, and well earned good luck, to be integral partners in the image making. Seeing the world in 180 degrees takes a lot of practice. A willingness to fail is essential to practice. Because there is an actual physical sweep of motion to making panoramas, my eye isn't the only part of me that goes into making the image. From my feet to my hips, my arms, shoulders, and hand, all of me, even the rate of my breathing, takes part in the panomaking.

With a slow steady sweep of motion either from left to right or right to left, or even bottom to top or top to bottom, I always need to take several breathes during an exposure. With that, a certain kind of zen mindset goes into making a successful panorama. Everything must be in sync and alignment. In the practice of zen, the idea of "satori" is often a topic of discussion and debate. But an equally important lesson from zen is to try not to speak about zen. So instead, I will speak about running.

As I mentioned above, many of these panoramas have been made while out running or cycling. I am a long distance runner and have completed four NYC marathons in 9 years, numerous half marathons and countless other races. For me, running is vital to being physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy. Running gets me out into the world with a primary focus, a goal to occupy my mind. With my conscious mind distracted with the obvious goal of achieving a certain distance in a certain time, the rest of me is free to see the world as I pass through it, and as it passes by. Running is a great way to see the world in fresh ways because of the increased speed with which I run through space. It gives my conscious mind less time to think, judge, or prejudge. Around every turn, around each corner, a new scene is waiting to be noticed. Running also requires a steady cadence and rhythm, pace, and breathing. That elevated physical state also raises my visual awareness and seeing.

Running through space makes me feel surrounded by and enveloped in and by that space. And when a certain space looks so interesting or is simply so beautiful that it stops me in my tracks with a sudden insight and awareness, an aha! moment, I take my iPhone from my runner's pouch and try to faithfully document the scene.

So the practice of running inspires the practice of picture making. And the creative process is circular and habitual. It is a virtuous spiral. Without first running, I would not have made these pictures. Certainly without the iPhone as a constant companion on my runs, I know of no other camera that is capable of making these pictures. As Apple has improved the Panorama functions in the iPhone, it has been great to push the creative potential of the camera to make increasingly beautiful and expressive images.

As a proud native New Yorker, my love for my city, its people, parks, gardens, sidewalks, and public spaces inspires me daily. Central Park is a gem. Riverside Park is heavenly. A thought I often have while trying to capture the beauty of New York is to simply document the poetry of the place. It is the photographer's job to translate the three dimensions of physical space down to the two dimensions of the picture plane. All of these pictures are essentially about that: the poetry of place.

With poetry in mind, a favorite quote from Maya Angelou reminds us "people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” So it's not the literal description of a specific place that is important to me. It is how the enveloping description of that place makes you feel. I hope these panoramas inspire you to get out of the house, away from your screens, and participate in the public life of our great city. It must be celebrated and defended with a clear eye and an awareness that it is the third places away from home and work where culture, art, community, and the best aspects of our human nature reside.

I'm about to go out for a run now. I'll take you along in my pocket. It's a gift to have a companion to share the world width.