That Meticulous Manipulation

PICTURES WORTH A THOUSAND PHOTOS. The usual attempt of digitally composing an image is to make the picture as realistic as possible, comprising proper angles and perspectives, as if photographed with a camera. But artist-photographer Jean Francois Rauzier attempts otherwise, with a belief that photos cannot truly be realistic in their one-angle, one-framing depiction of scenes.

Alternatively, he presents his Hyperphotos, digital compositions he deems ultimately more realistic than traditional photographs. The very wide yet very detailed panoramas consist of up to five thousand photos taken by the artist himself from various angles and distances. Ignoring actual scale and perspective, Rauzier keeps every detail in focus, be it in the foreground, the background, even outside the normal bounds of a given frame.

Indeed, the effect is much more truthful to the experience of seeing a place, marveling at its entirety with traveling eyes and an ever-craning neck. Just recalling my own visit to Versailles or Palau Música Catalana, traditional photographs do my memory little justice. In my head, they look more like Hyperphotos.

Hyperphoto by Jean Francois Rauzier, www.rauzier-hyperphoto.com