The foreground of a 360º photo often aggressively dominates and seems to take up a disproportionate amount of the photo. Much of the time, I try to minimise the foreground ‘volume’ but here I have deliberately positioned the camera to maximise the possibilities for distorting the surface area of the foreground. The symmetry of the image is similar to the magnetic field lines of a bar magnet. The symmetry draws your eye into the centre until you are immersed in the inner detail before disappearing into a small patch of sky.
My recent image works have focused on experiments expanding the frame of normal photography to investigate composition changes, image manipulation and modes of display.
360º cameras expand the usual photographic frame to capture everything surrounding the camera. The captured image can be viewed on mobile phones and websites by scrolling around the sphere but is ‘trapped’ in the digital world. By manipulating the image, it can be transposed into a form that can be displayed and reproduced using traditional 2D formats. My aim in the manipulation is to convey a sense of the place where the image is recorded, but at the same time create a new place that draws the viewer in and immerses them in the detail of the image.
Martyn James Bull is a filmmaker, photographer and writer based in Oxfordshire, UK. His work is dominated by science, technology, landscape and architecture and spans print, installation and digital.