Earlier this year, I was approached by a Denver, CO based architect with the request to license one of my photographs I shot at Antelope Canyon a few years ago for a large scale project. I didn’t know back then what they exactly meant by “large-scale” but I do now…
That was the original image:
and this is what they did with it:
University of Arizona, Tucson – on the southwest corner of the campus the student housing project has a study room with tall glass walls. These walls are protected from the sun by copper anodized aluminum perforated panels. The panels are punched part way through and then the ‘tabs’ are bent out to create a shadow. Collectively the shadows come together to form the image. The image was created by sending the photograph through a computerized machine that interprets all of the shadows based on a gradient from light to dark. Then the tabs are punched at various angles to create the image.
It’s still under construction and won’t be completed before Spring next year but the mural is up now and I’m told the size is roughly 31ft by 32ft and nearly 3 stories high. Pretty cool – I think.
Taking a closer look reveals the actual “pixels”:
Getting even closer shows the alignment of the tabs that act as “pixels”.
I will update the progress as soon as new pictures become available.
Disclaimer:
Construction site pictures and technical description have been provided by AR7 Architects – http://www.ar7.com
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Great stuff Mecki, Congrats!
This is the coolest thing I’ve seen today! Congratulations!
I’ve added your post as a discussion topic on the U.S. Green Building Council – Arizona Chapter group at LinkedIn. This is an ingenious method of adding value to a sustainability-boosting building component.
First of all, congratulations! I saw this going home yesterday and it does look very cool! As a part-time professional photographer, I have a question if you do not mind. Did you gave them permission to use your photo without knowing what they were going to do with it in terms of final size? I sure hope you got paid a sum in keeping with the size of the reproduction!
John, thanks for your comment.
I gave them permission to use my image for an architectural project but didn’t know any specifics. I didn’t charge any money for the licensing the image because I shot it at the Antelope Canyon which belongs to the Navajo’s and they didn’t allow commercial photography without getting a permit. I had no intention back then (Spring 2003) to sell those images so I released them under the Creative Commons license.
Ingo,
Good for you – that is a noble way to go. You must be the first person I have ever met that hasn’t charged for their Antelope Canyon shot. And I don’t know anyone who has a commercial photography permit… (I didn’t know you needed one and didn’t see that on their website). Too bad you didn’t charge the architecs and donate the money to the Navajos – that would have been good.
Take care.
Wow! That is so neat!
That looks awesome, man. Must be great feeling. Congrats:-)
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