Special places archive
June 2006
Hanoi panoramas
Photographer Thinh Le explains how he came to produce this portfolio of images of Hanoi:
In a previous project, while taking street photographs of my hometown, I felt limited by the confines of the conventional picture frame which could contain only parts of the many interesting activities that were happening simultaneously around me. I felt that in order to better capture the sense of these dynamic scenes, I would need to record the entire circle of view so I started using a rotational camera that could cover a complete 360-degree view. The rotational camera has radically changed my way of seeing, the ‘decisive moment’ is now stretched and is intergrated into a larger and complete frame in which every detail in the circle of view is recorded (and of equal importance, no detail is excluded). Aside from capturing the spatial relationship of the subjects within the circle of view, I also attempt to introduce cinematic elements (temporal relationship) by overlapping the beginning and end of the exposure (allowing the camera to rotate and expose more than 360 degrees) to show that the scene has changed and is no longer the same. [from the artist’s statement].Eight images are in this portfolio — of streets, markets, shops, temples and houses — full of colour and evocative detail.
The whole of one of Thinh Le’s Hanoi panoramic streetscapes (above), and a 450 pixel slice from the 3000 pixel wide image (below). Large prints are available for purchase — details are on the website.
