Leica Camera is linking up with the Amazing Shanghai art exhibit, held at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York, exhibiting a 360-degree panoramic image of the Shanghai skyline shot by the S System camera.
Amazing Shanghai, open Sept. 16-21, brings together artists and photographers from all over the world to celebrate New York’s affiliation with Shanghai and to give visitors a better understanding of the city.
“Hans George Esch’s Shanghai Rotunda is culturally significant in many ways,” says Karin Rehn- Kaufmann, chief representative of Leica Galleries International., “To show art in an open space that welcomes public interaction is a way of bringing beauty, art, and culture to the masses. People can visit the Rotunda and instantly be transported to another city, without traveling far.”
Viewers can go into an open-air rotunda outside of the front doors of 30 Rock, where they can see the exclusive 360-image. Leica claims that the pictorial experience is made even more intense by its interactive environment; viewers stand on a circular platform in the middle of the rotunda and are literally immersed in the image. Small and unique details found in the Shanghai skyline can be seen from the platform on the rotunda, particulars that are due to the high resolution and quality images that the S System produces.
That said, the panoramic images are themselves an artistic feat. Many images are shot over a short period of time and 60 images are assembled on a computer and printed onto large metal sheets to give the 360-degree effect, with all of the viewpoints merging into one against the horizon.
The 360-degree image was shot by a Leica S from the Jin Mao Tower, a landmark in the New District of Pudong on the opposite bank of the Huangpu River. It was shot by German artist and photographer Hans Georg Esch. Leica Camera and Leica Galerie Salzburg partnered to bring the panoramic display to New York.
This display is part of a greater effort by Mr. Esch. He has exhibited similar panoramic photographs of New York and Salzburg in various cities, all created in the same manner. Internationally known for his phenomenal architectural photography, Mr. Esch has been published in books such as “Megacities” and “City and Structure.”
