Dafydd Jones

My panoramic technique developed from experiments with an early VR software. I discovered if I was careful I could still stitch the pictures using a hand-held camera. I tried to capture the atmosphere of what was going on at social celebrity events. I wanted to cram in everything. There is an interesting random-surveillance aspect to some of the images as it is not possible to compose in the usual way. I like the feeling of time-passing and cinematic movement. For the pictures to work I can only stand in one place while photographing and simply pan around taking pictures while the scene unfolds. I stitch the pictures together and do as little manipulation as possible although the whole process is a form of manipulation. - I don't like to conceal this and like the feeling of motion that the occasional 'mistakes' give. In some ways the panoramas come closer to paintings I did years earlier at art school. I don't think it would be possible to put together these images without an art training. I did these first for Talk magazine. Then a series on the social season for the Tatler. After seeing my portfolio the art director Jason Shulman designed a slot for a panorama which stayed in the Sundat Telegraph magazine through several different editors and redesigns and grew into an opening double-page For 5 years I was on a roll with this weekly slot in the Sunday Telegraph and obsessed with doing these pictures. The weekly deadline to produce a double-page image was a challenge and also meant I was paid to do what I liked.