There is simply No Possible Way to rightly experience a panoramic photograph on a screen. In fact, it may be the last great and lasting holdout of photography as a non-digital medium.

Think about it. For the most part, all of the styles and ideas that photography has given us since the beginning are being successfully digitized. Even the sacred Large Format isn’t quite as special as it use to be. Physically-speaking, many of our screens are as big or bigger than an 8x10 (and will all one day soon be of “Retina” quality, no doubt.) And like it or not, but sheer size does indeed matter when it comes to viewing photographs.

This is why I think panoramics are so special. They are big. And the experience of their bigness simply cannot be conveyed on a monitor. This photo is not terribly impressive onscreen. Even when you view it in high resolution, you still don’t get a feel for the “panoramic-ness” of it. The printed version is amazing. It’s only 6 inches tall, and the color is a bit washed out (test prints) but it still feels bigger and grander somehow.

I need to print more of these. Bigger.