History of Panorama Photography

While emperors and kings commissioned their court artists at a much earlier stage to produce panoramic views of hunting and battle scenes, it was not until the 19th century that the panorama as an art form reached popular dimensions. As such it is a relic of that era, a visual sensation of a time when the cinema had yet to be invented.

The word panorama originates from the Greek and is a combination of the two terms "pan” (meaning all) and "horama” (meaning to see). In 1787 the Irishman Robert Baker filed a patent in London using this term for a special optical apparatus.

19th century painters were the first to implement panoramic paintings. They mounted their huge paintings inside a rotunda in the centre of which the viewer could stand and turn around. Stefan Oettermann invented the "unlimited painting", i.e. a continuous series of pictures insinuating to the viewers they were seeing a popular landscape as a real panorama. The first solid rotunda was built in London’s Leicester Park.

In 1843 the Austrian Joseph Puchberger invented a hand controlled oscillating lens for which he used bent daguerreotype plates of a length of 19 to 24 inches. With his camera which was equipped with an 8 inch focal distance he was able to take 150 degree panoramic photographs.

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