This is Hong Kong harbour in 1980. You are looking at 180 degrees of the full 360 degree panorama I took on a 6-inch Cirkut camera with 15-inch lens. Not included here are the environs of Kowloonside, the mountains of mainland China, and the legendary Kai Tak airport. At the time I thought it must be the most spectacular 360 viewpoint in the world. Since then the Victoria waterfront, on the centre left, has expanded with some much more extravagant skyscrapers When I saw my ten-foot transparency after processing I resolved to go back one day with the worlds biggest panoramic camera, the No16 Cirkut; which, with its 36-inch long-focus lens would need a staggering 20 foot by 16inch piece of film. ( The latter piece of glass, made in the days before telephotos, was, believe it or not, made by the Seebold Invisible Camera Corporation!)....Alas, that will always be one that got away, a truly invisible picture. The Star House building I was standing on is now crowned by a gigantic advertising sign, and the cameramans viewpoint has disappeared for ever. There was nowhere else like it, believe me; I went up nearly every tall building which seemed likely. This picture has only ever been seen once in its entirety; by express request of the organisers, at the unique “Panoramania” exhibition at Londons Barbican in 1989 as a Cibachrome contact-print. The piece of transparency film from which it was made measured almost 120-inch by 5-inch. ie a format ratio of 24-1. Such distant waterfront views from around the world demand for their dramatic impact a removal of all the extraneous empty sky and water, but the resulting extreme formats make them virtually unpublishable
