Wonderful Anamorphic Art

January 23, 2003 8:10 AM

You've probably seen those photo mosaics where a large image is made up of many smaller images acting as pixels. Kelly Houle has taken the idea a mile further by creating a photo collage that is also anamorphic -- a collage of illustrations and related material from Alice in Wonderland that, when a curved mirror is placed in the correct position, forms a portrait of Lewis Carroll. Absolutely amazing stuff.
posted by ewagoner (19 comments total)

More of her fantastic anamorphic art can be found here, as she sells prints and wooden jigsaw puzzles at reasonable prices. Leonardo DaVinci will soon be on my wall.
posted by ewagoner at 8:12 AM on January 23, 2003

All I gotta say is wow.
posted by ejoey at 8:15 AM on January 23, 2003

Kelly Houle sure has a lot of time on (her/his) hands. Brilliant, too. Reminds me of the "hidden alphabet letter" guy.
posted by troutfishing at 8:23 AM on January 23, 2003

very nice. Thanks for the link
posted by jeremias at 8:28 AM on January 23, 2003

Looks like the cylinder goes right on top of the cat. And thank goodness too, cause that sucker was giving me the heebie-jeebies something fierce.
posted by jdiaz at 8:29 AM on January 23, 2003

Amazing technique, and amazing result.

Apropos of something, the Brothers Quay did a short film about this technique (short description here).
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:36 AM on January 23, 2003

OK, not wanting to brag here, but I had the "mosaic" idea long before anyone else had ever displayed such a thing. Actually, my idea was a bit more intense in that each of the pictures making up the mosaic would either tell a story, or relate to a "theme" in some way. Of course, it was way before I had the technology/time and/or money to do such a thing.

I should have patented it!

Cool link BTW.
posted by Windopaene at 8:38 AM on January 23, 2003

ewagoner - great link. I was amused that he sells the anamorphic as a jigsaw puzzle, just to add another layer on top of it. "What is this?" "It's a jigsaw puzzle. Of a bunch of images from Alice in Wonderland. That, when you put a curved vertical mirror on, form an image of Lewis Carroll." Just for one extra layer of kookiness, it should all ship in some mysterious puzzlebox that you have to solve to open.
posted by jonson at 9:01 AM on January 23, 2003

What ejoey (and the last third of Windopaene) said. Props to ewagoner.

Now, to be really self-referential, I'd like to see a photomosaic of a portrait of Escher that only gets revealed when reflected in a glass ball or a Mobius strip.
posted by 314/ at 9:08 AM on January 23, 2003

I'd like to see a photomosaic of a portrait of Escher that only gets revealed when reflected in a glass ball
Kelly Houle already did it, sort of.
posted by vraxoin at 9:33 AM on January 23, 2003

what a great link! thank you.
posted by ifjuly at 10:20 AM on January 23, 2003

Wonderful! This is one of those little jewels lurking on the interweb that metafilter was meant to uncover. Thanks for the digging!
posted by taz at 10:37 AM on January 23, 2003

Though not a collage, Rick Wakeman's No Earthly Connection had an anamorphic cover, and originally came with a piece of reflective plastic (or foil?) for you to roll up and place in the middle to see Rick ready to pounce on a keyboard. It's one of Wakeman's all-time best albums (my fave is his Criminal Record), but if you don't like Rick, that won't account for much, I realize.

Still, bitchin' cover.
posted by soyjoy at 10:39 AM on January 23, 2003

This here is the best mosaic I have ever seen:

He is made of Jesus!
posted by wigu at 11:23 AM on January 23, 2003

Second what taz said. I come to Metafilter every day hoping for links like this.
posted by iconomy at 11:57 AM on January 23, 2003

I third that emotion. thanks for posting.

the work of Istvan Orosz (wish the pictures were better) and Pierre Beuchey is also worth a look, and this .pdf file reveals technical secrets.
posted by gravelshoes at 1:02 PM on January 23, 2003

aha! - here is a very good place to learn more. and I love the look of this Jules Verne picture
posted by gravelshoes at 1:13 PM on January 23, 2003

Talk about convergence;
A simpsons picture as a photo mosaic jigsaw;
Sinpsons jigsaw

Also i think you caould make these yourself with the Flexify plugin for photoshop.
posted by stuartmm at 1:40 PM on January 23, 2003

So.. Lewis Carrol looks like Mayor McCheese? Or am I not looking at the portrait right?
posted by hama7 at 6:49 PM on January 23, 2003