#photorama

San Diego holds the 4th Photorama in Balboa Park where over 100 models posed for amateur photographers

MR. WYLD'S MODEL OF THE EARTH.

The gigantic Globe of Mr. James Wyld, Mr., now opened in Leicester-square, is modelled on a scale of ten geographical miles to an inch horizontal, or six inches to a degree, and it is one mile to an inch vertical, the diameter being sixty feet. By means of a gradual ascent at different stages this colossal figure of the earth, with its mountain and valley, sea and river, may be viewed from a moderate distance. The objects just mentioned are represented by numberless raised blocks, and castings in plaster, figured on the interior concave of the sphere, the fittings up of which must have been both difficult and expensive.  Illustrated London News, Jan.-June, 1851

German artist Louis Braun, assisted by artists August Lohr and Franz Biberstein, unveiled in 1881 an immense panoramic painting of the battle, more than 400 feet in length and 50 feet high. On display, Braun’s masterpiece was stretched along the walls of a specially designed octagonal building, so that the viewer was totally immersed in the scene. The foreground was built up with dirt and rocks so the painting appeared to emerge beyond an actual landscape. The illusion was enhanced by brilliant electrical arc lighting. 

Panoramas are a worldwide phenomenon, uniting art and illusion. The beginning took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1787, with Robert Barker and his twelve-year-old son Henry Aston. Henry, a savant and magic lover, regarded fooling the eye (trompe l’oeil) integral to the enchantment of the panorama. Onlookers would see the curved 360-degree painting as if it were in the third dimension, as if they were transported to another place at another time, the same as it was, but then, somehow different.

Section of Burford’s Panorama, Leicester Square. From Robert Mitchell’s Plans and Views in Perspective of Buildings Erected in England and Scotland, 1801.

The Lumiere brothers filed for a patent for 360° takes on a single plate with a continuous image allowing for an overview; the Photorama. When the cinema was invented, it was immediately adopted: Grimoin—Sanson’s invention, the Cineorama in 1900, allowed viewers to experience a virtual balloon ride. Six simultaneous machines projected the film of an ascension inside a cylinder while the public stood on a platform built to resemble a basket.

https://www.victorianlondon.org/entertainment/wyld.htm

https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/citywiseblog/cincinnati-curiosities-battle-of-sedan/

https://panoramaonview.org/history

http://www.keris-studio.fr/blog/?p=10200

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pulp-o-rama/47005928254/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinéorama